>First of all, we do not want the user to submit the authentication for every method call by the use of two additional parameters.

First of all, why is this? Lets take for example, a VBScript that simple pops up a dialog box that tells you if there are UT replies waiting for you.

You could simply do:

oUT.GetReplies("username", "password")

and do it all. Why make it any more complex than that? Why require 3 round trips to the server to do one thing?

Also, would it be possible to send the username and password on every hit, but also allow for the header mechanism? That way, if you are using the header, or the cookie based, you can send blanks as the first two parameters? Otherwise, you can call the same method but pass the username and password, making it useable from any platform?

Or.... how about creating multiple methods? One accepts the Username and Password and one doesn't?