"Copying" a file from another server, help?!?

Is there another way besides fopen() that can be used to get a file that resides on another server on our network? As you may recall, I am having *serious* problems with fopen() (with ftp) and for the life of me I cannot get it to work. I really need to get/write a script in php that can grab the file and I cannot seem to find a solution. Does anyone have any other suggestions with regards to where I can look for something or functions that I can use? I'm getting kind of desperate here... Chris