diff --git a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/CrawlURI.java b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/CrawlURI.java
index b5d009db..f52f8096 100644
--- a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/CrawlURI.java
+++ b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/CrawlURI.java
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ implements Reporter, Serializable, OverlayContext {
      */
     private static final Collection<String> persistentKeys
      = new CopyOnWriteArrayList<String>(
-            new String [] {A_CREDENTIALS_KEY});
+            new String [] {A_CREDENTIALS_KEY, A_HTTP_AUTH_CHALLENGES});
 
     /** maximum length for pathFromSeed/hopsPath; longer truncated with leading counter **/ 
     private static final int MAX_HOPS_DISPLAYED = 50;
diff --git a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/credential/CommonsHttpCredentialUtil.java b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/credential/CommonsHttpCredentialUtil.java
index c360ef10..58a41bec 100644
--- a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/credential/CommonsHttpCredentialUtil.java
+++ b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/credential/CommonsHttpCredentialUtil.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 
 package org.archive.modules.credential;
 
-import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
@@ -31,7 +30,6 @@ import org.apache.commons.httpclient.NameValuePair;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.URIException;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.UsernamePasswordCredentials;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.auth.AuthChallengeProcessor;
-import org.apache.commons.httpclient.auth.AuthPolicy;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.auth.AuthScheme;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.auth.AuthScope;
 import org.apache.commons.httpclient.auth.AuthenticationException;
@@ -137,9 +135,6 @@ public class CommonsHttpCredentialUtil {
             logger.fine("Credentials for realm " + cred.getRealm() +
                     " for CrawlURI " + curi.toString() + " added to request");
 
-            http.getParams().setParameter(AuthPolicy.AUTH_SCHEME_PRIORITY,
-                    Arrays.asList(AuthPolicy.DIGEST, AuthPolicy.BASIC));
-
             result = true;
         } catch (URIException e) {
             logger.severe("Failed to parse host from " + curi + ": " +
diff --git a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/fetcher/FetchHTTP.java b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/fetcher/FetchHTTP.java
index 9b000e97..1ab88865 100644
--- a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/fetcher/FetchHTTP.java
+++ b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/fetcher/FetchHTTP.java
@@ -1277,28 +1277,31 @@ public class FetchHTTP extends AbstractFetchHTTP implements Lifecycle {
             return null;
         }
 
-        Map<String, String> authschemes = null;
+        Map<String, String> authChallenges = null;
         try {
             @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
             Map<String, String> parsedChallenges = AuthChallengeParser.parseChallenges(headers);
-            authschemes = parsedChallenges;
+            authChallenges = parsedChallenges;
             
-            curi.setHttpAuthChallenges(authschemes);
+            // remember WWW-Authenticate headers for later use 
+            curi.setHttpAuthChallenges(authChallenges);
         } catch (MalformedChallengeException e) {
             logger.fine("Failed challenge parse: " + e.getMessage());
         }
-        if (authschemes == null || authschemes.size() <= 0) {
+        if (authChallenges == null || authChallenges.size() <= 0) {
             logger.fine("We got a 401 and WWW-Authenticate challenge"
                     + " but failed parse of the header " + curi.toString());
             return null;
         }
 
+        // XXX there's a lot of overlap below with AuthChallengeProcessor.processChallenge()
+        
         AuthScheme result = null;
         // Use the first auth found.
-        for (Iterator<String> i = authschemes.keySet().iterator(); result == null
+        for (Iterator<String> i = authChallenges.keySet().iterator(); result == null
                 && i.hasNext();) {
             String key = (String) i.next();
-            String challenge = (String) authschemes.get(key);
+            String challenge = (String) authChallenges.get(key);
             if (key == null || key.length() <= 0 || challenge == null
                     || challenge.length() <= 0) {
                 logger.warning("Empty scheme: " + curi.toString() + ": "
@@ -1455,8 +1458,6 @@ public class FetchHTTP extends AbstractFetchHTTP implements Lifecycle {
         hcp.setSoTimeout(timeout);
         // Set client to be version 1.0.
         hcp.setVersion(HttpVersion.HTTP_1_0);
-        // We handle 401s, so when we do auth, we want it preemptive.
-        // hcp.setAuthenticationPreemptive(true);
 
         // configureHttpCookies(defaults);