I got a search service working using the public web site collection url
/_vti_bin/search.asmx

Now I would like to get it to work using the
publicssp:port/_vti_bin/search.asmx. I'm getting the same errors as
before. Last time I fixed it with a site collections permissions change,
but there isn't a site collection for
publicssp:port/_vti_bin/search.asmx. (it is an IIS application but there
is no SharePoint site at / )

A couple of questions that might help me figure out how to get
permissions right:

Should the SSP Service Credentials account be the same as the SSP
Application Pool Account?

Do I have to give special "Process Accounts with access to this SSP"?
Can I use the "Sharepoint Web Query Test Tool.exe" and run it as one of
these process accounts to test my configuration?

It probably isn't a good idea to allow anonymous access to the SSP? Or
is it? I probably shouldn't add it to the ssp/admin site I'm guessing.