httpclient gives something like the functionality of libwww-perl (LWP) in Ruby. httpclient formerly known as http-access2. Features: * methods like GET/HEAD/POST/* via HTTP/1.1. * HTTPS(SSL), Cookies, proxy, authentication(Digest, NTLM, Basic), etc. * asynchronous HTTP request, streaming HTTP request. * by contrast with net/http in standard distribution; o Cookies support o MT-safe o streaming POST (POST with File/IO) o Digest auth o Negotiate/NTLM auth for WWW-Authenticate (requires net/htlm module) o NTLM auth for Proxy-Authenticate (requires Win32/sspi module) o extensible with filter interface o you dont have to care HTTP/1.1 persistent connection (httpclient cares instead of you) * Not supported now o Cache o Rather advanced HTTP/1.1 usage such as Range, deflate, etc. (of course you can set it in header by yourself) For more detail, see API document at dev.ctor.org/doc/httpclient/