diff --git a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java
index ff23ce712..49ae15344 100644
--- a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java
+++ b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpClient.java
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ public void process(HttpRequest request, HttpContext context) {
                     request.addHeader(HEADER_ACCEPT_ENCODING, ENCODING_GZIP);
                 }
                 for (String header : clientHeaderMap.keySet()) {
-                	request.addHeader(header, clientHeaderMap.get(header));
+                    request.addHeader(header, clientHeaderMap.get(header));
                 }
             }
         });
@@ -239,7 +239,31 @@ public void setSSLSocketFactory(SSLSocketFactory sslSocketFactory) {
      * @param value the contents of the header
      */
     public void addHeader(String header, String value) {
-    	clientHeaderMap.put(header, value);
+        clientHeaderMap.put(header, value);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Sets basic authentication for the request. Uses AuthScope.ANY. This is the same as
+     * setBasicAuth('username','password',AuthScope.ANY) 
+     * @param username
+     * @param password
+     */
+    public void setBasicAuth(String user, String pass){
+        AuthScope scope = AuthScope.ANY;
+        setBasicAuth(user, pass, scope);
+    }
+    
+   /**
+     * Sets basic authentication for the request. You should pass in your AuthScope for security. It should be like this
+     * setBasicAuth("username","password", new AuthScope("host",port,AuthScope.ANY_REALM))
+     * @param username
+     * @param password
+     * @param scope - an AuthScope object
+     *
+     */
+    public void setBasicAuth( String user, String pass, AuthScope scope){
+        UsernamePasswordCredentials credentials = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(user,pass);
+        this.httpClient.getCredentialsProvider().setCredentials(scope, credentials);
     }
 
     /**