diff --git a/sandbox/src/test/java/org/acegisecurity/providers/dao/ldap/support/BaseLdapTestCase.java b/sandbox/src/test/java/org/acegisecurity/providers/dao/ldap/support/BaseLdapTestCase.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e57dec61a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox/src/test/java/org/acegisecurity/providers/dao/ldap/support/BaseLdapTestCase.java
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+/* Copyright 2004, 2005 Acegi Technology Pty Limited
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package net.sf.acegisecurity.providers.dao.ldap.support;
+
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
+
+import java.util.Hashtable;
+
+import javax.naming.Context;
+import javax.naming.NamingException;
+import javax.naming.directory.DirContext;
+import javax.naming.directory.InitialDirContext;
+
+
+
+/**
+ * This class defines certain base properties needed by
+ * all LDAP unit tests.  It also uses the EmbeddedLdapServerController to 
+ * bootstrap an 'embedded' instance of the Apache Directory Server to 
+ * run the Unit tests against.
+ */
+public class BaseLdapTestCase extends TestCase {
+    //~ Static fields/initializers =============================================
+
+    // static finalizers, they'd be nice, as the EmbeddedLdapServerController 
+    // never seems to get the chance to cleanup after itself
+	// Maybe JUnit4 will include such a thing.
+    protected static EmbeddedLdapServerController embeddedLdapServerController = new EmbeddedLdapServerController();
+
+    static {
+    	try {
+			LdapDirInitializer.intializeDir( embeddedLdapServerController.getServerContext() );
+		} catch (NamingException e) {
+			System.out.println("Error: unable to initialize LDAP Server for Unit tests.");
+			System.out.println("    Unable to continue testing LDAP Authentication Dao without LDAP Server.");
+			e.printStackTrace();
+		}
+    }
+
+    //~ Methods ================================================================
+
+    /** Returns a 'client' connection to the embedded LDAP Server, using 
+     *  JNDI to connect.
+     */
+    protected DirContext getClientContext() throws NamingException {
+        Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
+        env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ldap://localhost:389/ou=system");
+        env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
+            "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");
+        env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "uid=admin,ou=system");
+        env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "secret");
+
+        return new InitialDirContext(env);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     *
+     * @return The server context for LDAP operations; used for things like
+     *         addding/removing users to to test against.
+     */
+    protected DirContext getServerContext() {
+        return embeddedLdapServerController.getServerContext();
+    }
+    
+}