diff --git a/lib/dict.c b/lib/dict.c
index 893ef256e..53c245947 100644
--- a/lib/dict.c
+++ b/lib/dict.c
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_dict(struct connectdata *conn)
   char *path = conn->path;
   long *bytecount = &conn->bytecount;
 
-  if(data->bits.user_passwd) {
+  if(conn->bits.user_passwd) {
     /* AUTH is missing */
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/http.c b/lib/http.c
index 52b009d3e..a701e2a46 100644
--- a/lib/http.c
+++ b/lib/http.c
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_ConnectHTTPProxyTunnel(struct connectdata *conn,
              "%s"
              "\r\n",
              hostname, remote_port,
-             (data->bits.proxy_user_passwd)?conn->allocptr.proxyuserpwd:"",
+             (conn->bits.proxy_user_passwd)?conn->allocptr.proxyuserpwd:"",
              (data->useragent?conn->allocptr.uagent:"")
              );
 
@@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_http_connect(struct connectdata *conn)
       return CURLE_SSL_CONNECT_ERROR;
   }
 
-  if(data->bits.user_passwd && !data->bits.this_is_a_follow) {
+  if(conn->bits.user_passwd && !data->bits.this_is_a_follow) {
     /* Authorization: is requested, this is not a followed location, get the
        original host name */
     data->auth_host = strdup(conn->hostname);
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_http(struct connectdata *conn)
     conn->allocptr.uagent=NULL;
   }
 
-  if((data->bits.user_passwd) && !checkheaders(data, "Authorization:")) {
+  if((conn->bits.user_passwd) && !checkheaders(data, "Authorization:")) {
     char *authorization;
 
     /* To prevent the user+password to get sent to other than the original
@@ -606,10 +606,14 @@ CURLcode Curl_http(struct connectdata *conn)
                  (data->bits.http_post || data->bits.http_formpost)?"POST":
                  (data->bits.http_put)?"PUT":"GET"),
                 ppath,
-                (data->bits.proxy_user_passwd && conn->allocptr.proxyuserpwd)?conn->allocptr.proxyuserpwd:"",
-                (data->bits.user_passwd && conn->allocptr.userpwd)?conn->allocptr.userpwd:"",
-                (data->bits.set_range && conn->allocptr.rangeline)?conn->allocptr.rangeline:"",
-                (data->useragent && *data->useragent && conn->allocptr.uagent)?conn->allocptr.uagent:"",
+                (conn->bits.proxy_user_passwd &&
+                 conn->allocptr.proxyuserpwd)?conn->allocptr.proxyuserpwd:"",
+                (conn->bits.user_passwd && conn->allocptr.userpwd)?
+                conn->allocptr.userpwd:"",
+                (data->bits.set_range && conn->allocptr.rangeline)?
+                conn->allocptr.rangeline:"",
+                (data->useragent && *data->useragent && conn->allocptr.uagent)?
+                conn->allocptr.uagent:"",
                 (conn->allocptr.cookie?conn->allocptr.cookie:""), /* Cookie: <data> */
                 (conn->allocptr.host?conn->allocptr.host:""), /* Host: host */
                 http->p_pragma?http->p_pragma:"",
diff --git a/lib/telnet.c b/lib/telnet.c
index efcf5c638..c1b0601cc 100644
--- a/lib/telnet.c
+++ b/lib/telnet.c
@@ -745,7 +745,7 @@ static int check_telnet_options(struct connectdata *conn)
 
   /* Add the user name as an environment variable if it
      was given on the command line */
-  if(data->bits.user_passwd)
+  if(conn->bits.user_passwd)
   {
     char *buf = malloc(256);
     sprintf(buf, "USER,%s", data->user);
diff --git a/lib/url.c b/lib/url.c
index fc9b33e15..7d57bcb37 100644
--- a/lib/url.c
+++ b/lib/url.c
@@ -613,7 +613,6 @@ CURLcode Curl_setopt(CURL *curl, CURLoption option, ...)
      * user:password to use in the operation
      */
     data->userpwd = va_arg(param, char *);
-    data->bits.user_passwd = data->userpwd?1:0;
     break;
   case CURLOPT_POSTQUOTE:
     /*
@@ -657,7 +656,6 @@ CURLcode Curl_setopt(CURL *curl, CURLoption option, ...)
      * user:password needed to use the proxy
      */
     data->proxyuserpwd = va_arg(param, char *);
-    data->bits.proxy_user_passwd = data->proxyuserpwd?1:0;
     break;
   case CURLOPT_RANGE:
     /*
@@ -1288,10 +1286,15 @@ static CURLcode Connect(struct UrlData *data,
      connections, so we set this to force-close. Protocols that support
      this need to set this to FALSE in their "curl_do" functions. */
   conn->bits.close = TRUE;
+  
+  /* inherite initial knowledge from the data struct */
+  conn->bits.user_passwd = data->userpwd?1:0;
+  conn->bits.proxy_user_passwd = data->proxyuserpwd?1:0;
 
   /* Store creation time to help future close decision making */
   conn->created = Curl_tvnow();
 
+
   /***********************************************************
    * We need to allocate memory to store the path in. We get the size of the
    * full URL to be sure, and we need to make it at least 256 bytes since
@@ -1406,7 +1409,7 @@ static CURLcode Connect(struct UrlData *data,
    * Take care of user and password authentication stuff
    *************************************************************/
 
-  if(data->bits.user_passwd && !data->bits.use_netrc) {
+  if(conn->bits.user_passwd && !data->bits.use_netrc) {
     data->user[0] =0;
     data->passwd[0]=0;
 
@@ -1431,7 +1434,7 @@ static CURLcode Connect(struct UrlData *data,
   /*************************************************************
    * Take care of proxy authentication stuff
    *************************************************************/
-  if(data->bits.proxy_user_passwd) {
+  if(conn->bits.proxy_user_passwd) {
     data->proxyuser[0] =0;
     data->proxypasswd[0]=0;
 
@@ -1754,7 +1757,7 @@ static CURLcode Connect(struct UrlData *data,
             conn->hostname);
     }
     else
-      data->bits.user_passwd = 1; /* enable user+password */
+      conn->bits.user_passwd = 1; /* enable user+password */
 
     /* weather we failed or not, we don't know which fields that were filled
        in anyway */
@@ -1763,7 +1766,7 @@ static CURLcode Connect(struct UrlData *data,
     if(!data->passwd[0])
       strcpy(data->passwd, CURL_DEFAULT_PASSWORD);
   }
-  else if(!(data->bits.user_passwd) &&
+  else if(!(conn->bits.user_passwd) &&
 	  (conn->protocol & (PROT_FTP|PROT_HTTP)) ) {
     /* This is a FTP or HTTP URL, and we haven't got the user+password in
      * the extra parameter, we will now try to extract the possible
@@ -1812,7 +1815,7 @@ static CURLcode Connect(struct UrlData *data,
       }
 
       conn->name = ++ptr;
-      data->bits.user_passwd=1; /* enable user+password */
+      conn->bits.user_passwd=TRUE; /* enable user+password */
     }
     else {
       strcpy(data->user, CURL_DEFAULT_USER);
@@ -1998,7 +2001,7 @@ static CURLcode Connect(struct UrlData *data,
   /*************************************************************
    * Proxy authentication
    *************************************************************/
-  if(data->bits.proxy_user_passwd) {
+  if(conn->bits.proxy_user_passwd) {
     char *authorization;
     snprintf(data->buffer, BUFSIZE, "%s:%s",
              data->proxyuser, data->proxypasswd);
diff --git a/lib/urldata.h b/lib/urldata.h
index 53ff3427e..773d5bfae 100644
--- a/lib/urldata.h
+++ b/lib/urldata.h
@@ -183,6 +183,8 @@ struct ConnectBits {
   bool reuse; /* if set, this is a re-used connection */
   bool chunk; /* if set, this is a chunked transfer-encoding */
   bool httpproxy; /* if set, this transfer is done through a http proxy */
+  bool user_passwd;       /* do we use user+password for this connection? */
+  bool proxy_user_passwd; /* user+password for the proxy? */
 };
 
 /*
@@ -391,12 +393,10 @@ struct Configbits {
   bool httpproxy;
   bool mute;
   bool no_body;
-  bool proxy_user_passwd;
   bool set_port;
   bool set_range;
   bool upload;
   bool use_netrc;
-  bool user_passwd;
   bool verbose;
   bool this_is_a_follow; /* this is a followed Location: request */
   bool krb4; /* kerberos4 connection requested */