Abstract: Method and computer network for enhanced security for applications using downloadable executable content is described. More particularly, a client is operatively coupled to an authentication server and a remote host through a gateway. In an initial login session, authentication information is provided from the client to the gateway for obtaining client-authenticating credentials from the authentication server. These client-authenticating credentials may be encoded to be in a form of a data string and provided to the client, for example as the value of an HTTP cookie. The encoded data string may be provided to the client as one or more parameter values. These parameter values may be employed along with requested downloadable executable content, such as one or more Java classes, for running on the client. The Java classes may communicate the parameter values to an execution server of the gateway for decoding the encoded data string in order to extract the client-authenticating credentials therefrom.