Powershell basic authentication

gistfile1.bas

//This returns a 404 not found - powershell; I expected a 401 if my creds were bad
$Url = "https://github.com/api/v2/xml/commits/list/fellowshiptech/portal/Portal_2011.6.23_15-26"
$webclient = new-object system.net.webclient
$webclient.credentials = new-object system.net.networkcredential("user", "password")
$result = $webclient.DownloadString($Url)
$result

//This returns the data I want via terminal
curl -u user:password https://github.com/api/v2/xml/commits/list/fellowshiptech/portal/Portal_2011.6.23_15-26

//Here's how to do it via powershell - though I am not a fan of the implementation
$webclient = new-object system.net.webclient
$result = $webclient.DownloadString("https://github.com/api/v2/xml/commits/list/fellowshiptech/portal/Portal_2011.6.23_15-26?login=:user&token=:token")
$result