diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed521e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "hsclient"]
+	path = hsclient
+	url = https://github.com/hydroshare/hsclient.git
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8adc153..0e6958f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ pip install --upgrade pip
 # install nbfetch in edit mode
 pip install -e .
 
+# install hsclient fork
+pip install -e hsclient
+
 # enable jupyter_server extension
 jupyter server extension enable --py nbfetch
 
diff --git a/hsclient b/hsclient
new file mode 160000
index 0000000..099e242
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hsclient
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 099e242706d850847f728db3c5dff791178efe98
diff --git a/nbfetch/handlers.py b/nbfetch/handlers.py
index cf59291..ff0d417 100644
--- a/nbfetch/handlers.py
+++ b/nbfetch/handlers.py
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@
 # typing imports
 from typing import Optional, Tuple
 
+# probably need a varify=False for the hs client session? ssl cert...
+host = "www2-hydroshare.edc.renci.org"
+# host = "beta.hydroshare.org"
+protocol = "https"
+port = 443
+
 
 class ExtensionHandler(
     ExtensionHandlerMixin, ExtensionHandlerJinjaMixin, JupyterHandler
@@ -311,9 +317,9 @@ def check_auth(self, authfile=None, username=None, password=None):
             if authfile:
                 with open(authfile, 'rb') as f:
                         token, cid = pickle.load(f)
-                hs = HydroShare(client_id=cid, token=token)
+                hs = HydroShare(client_id=cid, token=token, host=host, protocol=protocol, port=port)
             else:
-                hs = HydroShare(username=username, password=password)
+                hs = HydroShare(username=username, password=password, host=host, protocol=protocol, port=port)
             self.log.info('hs=%s' % str(hs))
 
             info = hs.my_user_info()
@@ -376,7 +382,7 @@ def get(self):
         id = self.get_argument("id")
 
         # check to see if the resource is public
-        hs = HydroShare()
+        hs = HydroShare(host=host, protocol=protocol, port=port)
         try:
             hs.resource(id)
             self.log.info(f"Pulling public rid {id}. \
@@ -428,7 +434,7 @@ def get(self):
             path = urljoin(self.base_url, path)
             self.redirect(path)
             return
-
+        # 
         self.write(
             self.render_template(
                 "hstatus.html",