php ultranoob session question

[eric-yrHdaQSNc4gdnm+yROfE0A at public.gmane.org (Eric Chadbourne)]

hi all.

so i'm whipping up a log in system for a website instead of using 
somebody else's.  i'm reading though the sessions documentation.  being 
as the session id is propagated via a cookie or the url is there any 
advantage to using sessions with a basic authentication system.  at the 
moment it appears everything sessions can do i can do via my own 
hackery.  forgive my question if i'm missing something fundamental. 
many thanks for any tips.  :-)

- eric c.  aka the slowest coder this side of cambridge.