Fopen only absolute IP

I can't use any filesystem function (fopen, file, fsockopen, etc.) to open a remote file (fopen wrapper is obviously on). For example if I try the following: $S = file ("http://www.yahoo.com/"); I obtain the error: "Bad file descriptor" If I use an absolute IP address: $S = file ("http://216.32.74.50/"); I have no problem. The machine runs BSDI BSD/OS 4.1 + PHP 4.0.3pl1 + Apache 1.3.11 No problem to access dns from this machine as "ping www.yahoo.com" or "wget www.yahoo.com" work well. I don't want to use absolute IP numbers to retrieve data from remote file (as they can change often). Any ideas, suggestions? Thank you. Dr. Paolo Ciraci - EDP Manager and Webmaster ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nautica On Line - http://www.nautica.it EuroMeteo - http://www.eurometeo.com SCUBAweb - http://www.scubaweb.it