[thelist] fopen on php failing

[alex]

Hi evolt

started work on a scraper & i have a really annoying problem of getting 
fopen to work.

ie this sort of thing:

 $fail = "failed";
                $remote = @fopen ($link, "rb");
                if (!$remote){
                        print($link." FAILED");
                        return $fail;

im wondering if its to do with system variables being set by the supervisor?

other programs using this function where working fine but now, they arent!

ideas?

rgds
Alex