diff --git a/lib/tripod/streaming.rb b/lib/tripod/streaming.rb
index 537b1de..4c984f6 100644
--- a/lib/tripod/streaming.rb
+++ b/lib/tripod/streaming.rb
@@ -4,29 +4,37 @@
 module Tripod
   module Streaming
 
+    def self.create_http_client(uri, opts)
+      client = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
+      client.use_ssl = true if uri.port.to_s == "443"
+      client.read_timeout = opts[:timeout_seconds] || 10
+      client
+    end
+
+    def self.create_request(uri, opts)
+      headers = opts[:extra_headers] || {}
+      a = opts[:accept] || headers['Accept'] || '*/*'
+      headers['Accept'] = a
+
+      req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri.request_uri, headers)
+
+      if uri.user
+        req.basic_auth(uri.user, uri.password)
+      end
+      req
+    end
+
     # stream data from a url
     # opts
     #  :accept => "*/*"
     #  :timeout_seconds = 10
     #  :response_limit_bytes = nil
     def self.get_data(request_url, payload, opts={})
-
-      accept = opts[:accept]
-      timeout_in_seconds = opts[:timeout_seconds] || 10
       limit_in_bytes = opts[:response_limit_bytes]
-
-      # set request headers
-      headers = opts[:extra_headers] || {}
-
-      # if explicit accept option is given, set it in the headers (and overwrite any existing value in the extra_headers map)
-      # if none is given accept */*
-      headers['Accept'] = accept || headers['Accept'] || '*/*'
-
       uri = URI(request_url)
 
-      http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
-      http.use_ssl = true if uri.port.to_s == "443"
-      http.read_timeout = timeout_in_seconds
+      http = self.create_http_client(uri, opts)
+      post_request = self.create_request(uri, opts)
 
       total_bytes = 0
 
@@ -35,7 +43,7 @@ def self.get_data(request_url, payload, opts={})
       response = StringIO.new
 
       begin
-        http.request_post(uri.request_uri, payload, headers) do |res|
+        http.request(post_request, payload) do |res|
 
           response_duration = Time.now - request_start_time if Tripod.logger.debug?
 
diff --git a/spec/tripod/streaming_spec.rb b/spec/tripod/streaming_spec.rb
index db23950..4e08cd2 100644
--- a/spec/tripod/streaming_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/tripod/streaming_spec.rb
@@ -37,6 +37,95 @@
       end
     end
 
+    describe '.create_http_client' do
+      context 'http URI with no options' do
+        let(:client) { Tripod::Streaming.create_http_client(URI('http://localhost:8080/sparql/query'), {}) }
+
+        it 'should set host' do
+          expect(client.address).to eq('localhost')
+        end
+
+        it 'should set port' do
+          expect(client.port).to eq(8080)
+        end
+
+        it 'should set default read timeout' do
+          expect(client.read_timeout).to eq(10)
+        end
+
+        it 'should not use ssl' do
+          expect(client.use_ssl?).to eq(false)
+        end
+      end
+
+      context 'https URI with default https port' do
+        let(:client) { Tripod::Streaming.create_http_client(URI('https://localhost:443/sparql/query'), {}) }
+        it 'should use ssl' do
+          expect(client.use_ssl?).to eq(true)
+        end
+      end
+
+      context 'with read timeout option' do
+        let(:read_timeout) { 5 }
+        let(:client) { Tripod::Streaming.create_http_client(URI('http://localhost/sparql/query'), {:timeout_seconds => read_timeout}) }
+
+        it 'should set read timeout' do
+          expect(client.read_timeout).to eq(read_timeout)
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    describe '.create_request' do
+      context 'with no user or extra headers' do
+        let(:req) { Tripod::Streaming.create_request(URI('http://localhost/sparql/query'), {}) }
+        it 'should set accept header' do
+          expect(req['accept']).to eq('*/*')
+        end
+      end
+
+      context 'with no user and extra headers' do
+        let!(:extra_headers) { {'content-type' => 'application/sparql-query', 'connection' => 'close'} }
+        let!(:req) { Tripod::Streaming.create_request(URI('http://localhost/sparql/query'), {:extra_headers => extra_headers}) }
+
+        it 'should set headers' do
+          extra_headers.each do |name, value|
+            expect(req[name]).to eq(value)
+          end
+        end
+      end
+
+      context 'with no user and extra headers and accept options' do
+        let(:extra_headers) { { 'accept' => 'text/trig' } }
+        let(:accept) { 'application/n-triples' }
+        let(:req) { Tripod::Streaming.create_request(URI('http://localhost/sparql/query'), {:extra_headers => extra_headers, :accept => accept}) }
+
+        it 'should set accept option as accept header' do
+          expect(req['accept']).to eq(accept)
+        end
+      end
+
+      context 'with user and no headers' do
+        let(:req) { Tripod::Streaming.create_request(URI('http://user:password@localhost/sparql/query'), {}) }
+        it 'should use basic auth' do
+          expect(req['authorization']).to match(/Basic [a-zA-Z0-9+\/=]+/)
+        end
+      end
+
+      context 'with user and extra Authorization header' do
+        let(:extra_headers) { {'content-type' => 'application/sparql-query', 'authorization' => 'Token abcdef'} }
+        let(:uri) { URI('http://user:password@localhost/sparql/query') }
+        let(:req) { Tripod::Streaming.create_request(uri, {:extra_headers => extra_headers}) }
+
+        it 'should use basic auth' do
+          expect(req['authorization']).to match(/Basic [a-zA-Z0-9+\/=]+/)
+        end
+
+        it 'should set other extra header' do
+          expect(req['content-type']).to eq('application/sparql-query')
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
     # these tests actually download remote resources (from jQuery's CDN) to test the streaming bits
     # TODO: move this out so it doesn't run with the normal rake task??
     context "streaming" do