cURL: curl_exec return value

Hey - - - - ----- - - I am new to using cURL, so I would appreciate your help. Fortunately, I have samples to follow, but the return value is not as I expect. In short, instead of returning a Resource, it is just returning TRUE. I have tried setting: curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TRANSFERTEXT, true); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, true); I have tried these together and separately and in all combinations. (IOW: flailing blindly) Any clue what I am doing wrong? (relevant code below) Ken Code: ----------------------------------------------------- $url = $this->cc_submit_post_url; $ch = curl_init(); // my lines, in any combination curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TRANSFERTEXT, true); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, true); // these lines are *supposedly* well-tested curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 20); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false); // providing a header manually curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $header); // The following two options are necessary to properly set up SSL curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 1); $data = curl_exec($ch); if (curl_errno($ch)) { $appl['error_message'] = curl_error($ch); $return_val = FALSE; } else { curl_close($ch); } -------------------------------------------