diff --git a/module-client/src/examples/org/apache/http/examples/client/ClientAuthentication.java b/module-client/src/examples/org/apache/http/examples/client/ClientAuthentication.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2f00c85f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/module-client/src/examples/org/apache/http/examples/client/ClientAuthentication.java
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+/*
+ * $Header$
+ * $Revision$
+ * $Date$
+ * ====================================================================
+ *
+ *  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ *  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ *  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ *  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ *  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ *  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ *  limitations under the License.
+ * ====================================================================
+ *
+ * This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many
+ * individuals on behalf of the Apache Software Foundation.  For more
+ * information on the Apache Software Foundation, please see
+ * <http://www.apache.org/>.
+ *
+ * [Additional notices, if required by prior licensing conditions]
+ *
+ */
+
+package org.apache.http.examples.client;
+
+import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
+import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
+import org.apache.http.auth.AuthScope;
+import org.apache.http.auth.UsernamePasswordCredentials;
+import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
+import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
+
+/**
+ * A simple example that uses HttpClient to execute an HTTP request against
+ * a target site that requires user authentication. 
+ */
+public class ClientAuthentication {
+
+    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
+        DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
+
+        httpclient.getState().setCredentials(
+                new AuthScope("localhost", 443), 
+                new UsernamePasswordCredentials("username", "password"));
+        
+        HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet("https://localhost/protected");
+        
+        System.out.println("executing request" + httpget.getRequestLine());
+        HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httpget);
+        HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
+
+        System.out.println("----------------------------------------");
+        System.out.println(response.getStatusLine());
+        if (entity != null) {
+            System.out.println("Response content length: " + entity.getContentLength());
+            System.out.println("Chunked?: " + entity.isChunked());
+        }
+        if (entity != null) {
+            entity.consumeContent();
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/HttpClient.java b/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/HttpClient.java
index 89c5e0069..7aab1a88e 100644
--- a/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/HttpClient.java
+++ b/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/HttpClient.java
@@ -91,9 +91,8 @@ public interface HttpClient {
         ;
 
     /**
-     * Executes a request using the {@link #getContext default context}.
-     * Same as {@link #execute(HttpUriRequest,HttpContext)
-     *          client.execute(request, client.getContext())},
+     * Executes a request using the {@link #getDefaultContext() default context}.
+     *              
      * see there for details.
      *
      * @param request   the request to execute
@@ -142,8 +141,7 @@ public interface HttpClient {
      *                  {@link #getContext default context}
      *
      * @return  the response to the request. See
-     *          {@link #execute(HttpUriRequest,HttpContext)
-     *                  execute(target,request,context)}
+     *          {@link #execute(HttpUriRequest,HttpContext)}
      *          for details.
      *
      * @throws HttpException    in case of a problem
@@ -154,5 +152,22 @@ public interface HttpClient {
         throws HttpException, IOException
         ;
 
+    /**
+     * Executes a request along the given route using the 
+     * {@link #getDefaultContext() default context}.
+
+     * @param roureq    the request to execute along with the route
+     *
+     * @return  the response to the request. See
+     *          {@link #execute(HttpUriRequest,HttpContext)}
+     *          for details.
+     *
+     * @throws HttpException    in case of a problem
+     * @throws IOException      in case of an IO problem
+     * <br/><i @@@>timeout exceptions?</i>
+     */
+    HttpResponse execute(RoutedRequest roureq)
+        throws HttpException, IOException
+        ;
 
 } // interface HttpClient
diff --git a/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/AbstractHttpClient.java b/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/AbstractHttpClient.java
index 36e3ad025..f374acd32 100644
--- a/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/AbstractHttpClient.java
+++ b/module-client/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/AbstractHttpClient.java
@@ -349,6 +349,8 @@ public abstract class AbstractHttpClient
     /**
      * Maps to {@link #execute(HttpUriRequest,HttpContext)
      *                 execute(request, context)}.
+     * The route is computed by {@link #determineRoute determineRoute}.
+     * This method uses {@link #getDefaultContext() default context}.
      *
      * @param request   the request to execute
      *
@@ -404,6 +406,13 @@ public abstract class AbstractHttpClient
         return execute(roureq, context);
     }
 
+    
+    public HttpResponse execute(RoutedRequest roureq) 
+        throws HttpException, IOException {
+        return execute(roureq, null);
+    }
+
+
     // non-javadoc, see interface HttpClient
     public final HttpResponse execute(RoutedRequest roureq, HttpContext context)
         throws HttpException, IOException {