# GOAL : download a copy of the remote file

        my $file_url = $base_url . $remote_file;

        my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
        my $req = GET $file_url;

        my $downloaded = 0;  # 0 = not d/l , 1 = d/l
        my $tries = 4;
        while( (! $downloaded) and ($tries >= 0) ) {
            -- $tries;
            #print "tries: $tries\n";

            $req->authorization_basic('mwuser', 'mwpass');
            my $response = $ua->request($req);

            my $file_content = $ua->request($req)->content;
            # print $file_content;

            my $md5_is_good;
            check_file_md5($file_url, $file_content, \$md5_is_good);
            #print "md5_is_good: $md5_is_good\n";

            if ($response->is_success and $md5_is_good) {
                $downloaded = 1;
            } else {
                my $msg = "$0: unable to get file. '$file_url'"
                     . " '" . $response->code. "'"
                     . " '" . status_message($response->code). "'"
                ;
                unless ($md5_is_good) {
                    $msg .= " MD5 sum mismatch error";
                }
                warn $msg;

                if ($tries < 0) {
                    next CFG_KEY;  # next file to download
                } else {
                    print "re-trying $file_url\n";
                }
            }
        }

        my $file_content = $ua->request($req)->content;
        # print $file_content;