[Tutor] Avoiding reauthentication to web services?

[Ryan on the Beach]

Hello.
I am trying to write a python program to control a  lighting controller through it's rest interface.  It requires ssl and basic authentication.  I have been successful using urllib2.  However, the authentication takes a very long time on the controller so multiple http gets are slow.  I believe this is because of the controller itself.
In a web browser after I authenticate each request is very fast, presumably because the browser is not re-authenticating again and again.    In an attempt to fix this I tried httplib2 after some googling thinking it might give me the desired result, but it does not either.  
Can anyone suggest how this would be accomplished?  I want to keep the connection "open".  At least so it does not re-authenticate over and over again, similar to how it works within a web browser.  Is this possible?
Thanks.Si. 		 	   		  
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