Pear Auth, a couple of questions

hello, Sorry I couldn't make the subject more specific, but I couldn't think of what else to say. :) I do have two questions. 1. Is there any way to make Auth use an already existing db connection to do whatever it needs to do? On my page I already have a db connection open, but when I create the auth object, won't that create a new connection? that is not what i want; but I would like for it to use the already existing one. is there a way to do so? 2. With any pear package but this one especially, is it possible to use it even if it has not been installed as a pear package? I want to use this on the host where my site is, and they do have pear, but not the Auth package. Will it work if I put Auth.php in a directory and also the Auth directory and set the include path so that I can include Auth/auth.php? Thank you for your help on either of these questions. Brandon