How come sandbox paypal isn't sending me IPN?

My handler and paypal had communicated for a few days ago then something happened which made the latter stopped sending IPN anymore. I tried simulating the IPN sending via my own script without the post back capability for validation using cURL. My handler is perfectly working. I also place a simple line of code(already tested via cURL) before the lines that post back to paypal so I could check paypal's response. That line of code simply records the IPN into the database. It didn't record either. It should right? Because paypal sends IPN twice. I made sure IPN is turned on in my merchant account and the link points to my handler. Now I am beginning to suspect paypal isn't sending me anything. Here's my handler:

<?php

require_once 'classes/Mysql.php';
require_once 'classes/Email.php';

$mysql = new Mysql();
$myemail = new Email();

// read the post from PayPal system and add 'cmd'
$req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
$value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
$req .= "&$key=$value";
}

// assign posted variables to local variables
$item_name = $_POST['item_name'];
$payment_status = $_POST['txn_type'];
$payment_amount = $_POST['mc_amount3'];
$payment_currency = $_POST['mc_currency'];
$subscr_id = $_POST['subscr_id'];
$receiver_email = urldecode($_POST['receiver_email']);
$payer_email = $_POST['payer_email'];
$subscr_type = $_POST['option_selection1'];
$username = $_POST['custom'];

//Save a copy of $req to the database. If paypal sends IPN, this should at least grab the first one before validation. 
$memberID = $mysql->get_member_id($username);
$mysql->test_message($req.$payment_amount.$payment_currency, $memberID, $username, $payment_amount, $payment_currency);

// post back to PayPal system to validate
$header .= "POST /cgi-bin/webscr HTTP/1.0\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Length: " . strlen($req) . "\r\n\r\n";
$fp = fsockopen ('ssl://www.paypal.com', 443, $errno, $errstr, 30);

if (!$fp) {
// HTTP ERROR
} else {
fputs ($fp, $header . $req);
while (!feof($fp)) {
$res = fgets ($fp, 1024);
if (strcmp ($res, "VERIFIED") == 0) {

//This if block does the payment processing. If I place this before the validation/post back occurs, it doesn't work either. But it works when testing using my cURL script--- before the validation.
if($memberID)
{
    if($payment_status=='subscr_signup' && $payment_currency=='USD' && !$mysql->check_if_transactionID_exists($subscr_id)) 
    {
        $mysql->activate_subscription($memberID, $subscr_id, $subscr_type, $payment_amount);
    }

}

}
else if (strcmp ($res, "INVALID") == 0) {
// log for manual investigation
}
}
fclose ($fp);
}

I heard so many stories paypal is so frustrating to set. Could it be that paypal is just isn't sending IPN or there's something wrong with my handler?

ansaurus

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How come sandbox paypal isn't sending me IPN?

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