A simple class that retrieves remote content on servers without cURL and/or other limitations, like allow_url_fopen disabled.
<?php
require('HTTPRequest.class.php');
$request = new HTTPRequest('http://www.google.com');
// Get the content
echo $request->getContent(); // or just: echo $request;
// Get headers
echo '<pre>';
print_r($request->getHeaders());
echo '</pre>';