So, Here are the relevant routes

 map.namespace "admin" do |admin|
    admin.root :controller => :site_prefs, :action => :index
    admin.resources :site_prefs
    admin.resources :link_pages
    admin.resources :menu_bars
    admin.resources :services
    admin.resources :users
  end

And I have this for one controller:

before_filter :authenticate

  protected

    def authenticate
    authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic do |username, password|
      username == "1234" && password == "1234"
    end
  end

How do I set up my admin controllers to authenticate no matter what page within any of those controllers is navigated to, yet only have it authenticate once among all the admin controllers, and have the code all in one spot.

Right now, the only I can think of to authenticate is to copy the auth code into each controller, and I hate having duplicate code... so.... yeah