OK. After working through this some more, here is what works from inside WSH 5.6. The bug/feature is that if you specify a username/password when none is wanted by the page, then the control chokes. Posting this here so others won't bang their head against the wall (and bother Erik) like me:

Set oXML = WScript.CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
objValue = oXML.readyState
WScript.Echo objValue
WScript.Echo vbCRLF
iOpenIt = oXML.Open("GET", "http://www.xml101.com/examples/simple.xml",false)
   ' Include "domain\user","password" if required by page in the Open parms
objValue = oXML.readyState
WScript.Echo objValue
WScript.Echo vbCRLF
oXML.Send
WScript.Echo objValue
WScript.Echo vbCRLF
cOKValue = oXML.StatusText
WScript.Echo cValue
WScript.Echo vbCRLF
cResponse = oXML.ResponseText
WScript.Echo cResponse
objValue = oXML.readyState
WScript.Echo objValue
WScript.Echo vbCRLF

Running the above from cscript.exe (no GUI when I test this stuph), you should see "0" indicating that the object is open but doing nothing, "1" indicating that the object is getting data, another "1", an "OK" meaning that the status is OK, and then the XML document, then a "4" to say it's got everything OK.

The above code runs the same whether you instance "Microsoft.XMLHTTP" or "MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP", so I think MS is saying it's not supported by MS on NT4/Win9x but it runs.

Since you're so interested (grin), it's time to make this move some binary data. Then I can have one COM object running "everywhere" to transfer data all over the place, whether it lives behind ASP pages or VFP or VB apps. Anybody got ideas on moving binary?

Thanks again to all who particiapted on this thread.