PHP error reading remote file

Question

When I try to do a file('http://somewebsite.com') i get an error

"URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration"

I tried using ini_set('allow_url_fopen', 'On'); but that didn't work.

I'm using shared hosting. Any suggestions?

All I want to do is read the html source code of a website.

Answer 1

On php version>4.3.4 and <6, you can't set allow_url_fopen in your script. Try using curl instead.

Answer 2

If your hosting allows and reads custom .htaccess files, try putting the following line to a .htaccess at the root of your project:

php_flag allow_url_fopen on

and see if it has an effect...