HTTP authentication

[Preston Tamkin]

hello all. I've just recently jumped on the python bandwagon, and I need
some help!
I'm trying to write a program(in python) to go out to several websites and
get a few numbers off of the page. Only problem is, I need to give the site
a username and password! It's not HTTPS, SSL, or anything like that.  I did
some packet sniffing and it is a HTTP POST command, the server then requests
the information then the client sends the u/p. I'm using raw sockets and
can't figure out how to listen for the "request" packet or excatly what to
send for the last part. The site uses ASP. It's http://boards.ign.com if you
want to look at it.  Is there an easier way to do it? Am I just simply
missing something? Thanks in advance

P.S. Me = TOTAL n00b