Retrieving echoed data

I am sending data to a credit card authorization firm by opening a socket and sending the data with the POST method. They in turn "echo" the status back to my page. I am not clear on how to put this data into a variable (it is a comma delimited string) so that I can decode it. Will the data be in $fp as shown in the code below? Many thanks......... Todd $http = new http; $fp = $http->http_fpost($server, $path . "sendauth.php", "SID=". $sid . "&pu_courseno=" . urlencode($pu_courseno) . "&pu_amount=" . urlencode($pu_amount) . "&pu_ccno=" . $pu_ccno . "&pu_exp=" . $pu_expiremo . $pu_expireyr . "&pu_ssn=" . $pu_ssn); if($fp) { print '<BASE HREF="' . $url . 'sendauth.php"><p>'; fpassthru($fp); exit; }; //if $fp -- Todd Cary Ariste Software todd@aristesoftware.com