>The gotcha I'm worried about is will spider.pl somehow fetch the  
>'same' page at multiple access levels?  I'm thinking it might, if the  
>spider clears it list of visited URLs as it begins each element in  
>@servers.  And I can't depend on the MD5 hash, because additional  
>menu items appear as a user's access level changes, so the home page,  
>for example, will have a different menu for $access_level == 1, than  
>for $access_level=2.

I have the same scenario (different menu items) but not as cleanly
defined access levels.  (Level 1 can access A, B; Level 2 can access A,
C; Level 3 can access C; etc.)

Setting the cookie for each access level and letting swish-e spider that
way seems the best way to go and just let it build separate indexes.
Redundant, but simpler.  

I appreciate the thoughtful feedback on this issue so quickly.

Thanks,
Chad