How can I simulate the login process?

From:	_lallous	Date:	Thu, 04 Oct 2001 09:48:24 +0000
Subject:	How can I simulate the login process?
Groups:	php.general
Request:	Send a blank email to php-general+get-69903@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message

I want to write a script that simulates the login process and logs on and grabs some pages (that can only be viewed when logged in) and the logs out... how can i do that? consider the authentication system is done via session variables method... any ideas would help.