Calling MSWord from an agent on secure web app

We recently switched our login method to session-based authentication. All seemed good until we found out that our agents that wrote to Microsoft Word no longer worked. Instead of opening up a server generated word document, Word opens with the session login screen displayed as a Word document. My assessment is that somehow the cookie isn’t being transfered to Word. Calling Excel also doesn’t work.

The app uses SSL and I found that if I disable SSL or allow Anonymous users, the problem is resolved.

Anyone calling Office Apps from a secure db with session authentication? Or does anyone have any ideas as to how I can fix this?

Thanks for your help.

Collin