file(URL) causes a blank page

[mendhak]

One of my websites on a shared host has started behaving strangely. The file() function won't work when calling a URL. Here is what I tried, straight from php.net/function.file.

start

<?


// Get a file into an array.  In this example we'll go through HTTP to get
// the HTML source of a URL.
$lines = file('http://www.mendhak.com/default.aspx');


?>

finish

The page comes out as blank for any URL. It gives an HTTP 200, but there is no markup at all when viewing source. Is there a way to make the page not depend on what's coming back from the HTTP request? I've also tried a try catch, still blank response.

start

<?

try
{

// Get a file into an array.  In this example we'll go through HTTP to get
// the HTML source of a URL.
$lines = file('http://www.vbforums.com/index.php');
}
catch(Exception $e)
{
echo ('exception');
}

?>

finish

The server is using PHP 5.2.5.

Another question - I can do a phpinfo(), but is there anything in phpinfo() that I can look at to see whether such web requests are allowed or not?