In the documentation for urllib2, the example [1] for using basic HTTP authentication has the following code for the call to add_password():

auth_handler.add_password('realm', 'host', 'username', 'password')

This actually worked in earlier (pre-2.4.3) versions of urllib2, but even in those older versions, the documentation for HTTPPasswordMgr.add_password() makes it clear that a URI must be passed as the second argument to the method, not a host name.

Even though the behavior in the library method has changed (passing a full URI versions of Python earlier than 2.4.3 didn't work, at least when a non-standard port was specified), the documentation has not changed (the add_password() documentation specifies a URI, even in the pre-2.4.3 versions of Python) and the examples in the documentation for urllib2 still say 'host'.

[1] http://docs.python.org/lib/urllib2-examples.html

Bob, can you submit a patch to correct these problems?  Note:  we no longer support the 2.4 series.

If I'm not right in assuming that the documentation is generated directly from urllib2.py let me know and I'll try to find the right separate file in svn.
File Added: urllib2.py.patch

The docs are maintained separately, you'll have to look at Doc/lib/liburllib2.tex.

File Added: bug1703110.patch

Thanks for the patch!

Committed revision 54932.
Committed revision 54933. (2.5)