WebRequest request = new GetMethodWebRequest( "http://localhost/feeds/unauthorized-repo" );
Encoder encoder = new Base64();
String userPass = "unauthUser:unauthPass";
String encodedUserPass = new String( (byte[]) encoder.encode( userPass.getBytes() ) );
request.setHeaderField( "Authorization", "BASIC " + encodedUserPass );
try
{
WebResponse resp = client.getResponse( request );