fread via ftp to NT fails

I'm attempting to read a file from a remote server and save it to a variable. The code below works fine if the remote server is unix based, but fails with the server I actually need to retrieve data from (NT4 SP4, beyond my control). When trying to fread from the NT server, $invoice_contents ends up being null ($invoice_contents === ''). if( !($fd = fopen("anonymous:guest@ftp.myhost.com/pub/readme.txt", "rb"))){ $error = true; $error_msg = "Unable to connect to server."; } else { $i = 0; do { $invoice_contents = fread($fd, 100000); $i++; } while( $invoice_contents == "" && $i < 2 ); fclose($fd); } Here's the interesting part: If I comment out the fread and run this code, there is no visable difference in the ftp logs on the NT server (a USER, PASS, and sent <path/file> appear for the connection). Am I correct in interpreting this as the file is being sent immediately (after the fopen) rather than at the fread? Has anybody else encountered this? Thanks, mth