Preemptive HTTP authentication

Does anybody know how to preemptively authenticate HTTP authentication? I have tried using 'Header("Authorization: Basic QWxh-------");', but no luck. I am currently trying to combine mod_auth_mysql authentication and my customized PHP athentication. After PHP authentication, I would like to set mod_auth_mysql authentication( which use HTTP authentication), so that it would not prompt for user_id/password, again. - when I try to access folder that is protected by mod_auth_mysql authentication. HTTP Authentication seems to be relying on HTTP_SERVER_VARS["PHP_AUTH_USER"] and HTTP_SERVER_VARS["PHP_AUTH_PW"] variables to check if it's authenticated. I have tried using 'http://user_id:password@www.thesitename.com , but old Netscape browsers does not work well with this. If you have any idea about this, could you send email to this address: Jturtle@netzero.net Thanks.