Greg stumbled across the php variable ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER') to return the username of the currently logged in user, if any. He was using an htaccess file to do the authentication. There's also some php which you can use to send the authentication request. Details and simple example at http://ca2.php.net/features.http-auth . I'll likely implement this in a new version of my MA and PHD applicant review instance for English and let Political Science know about it for their instance