[SOLVED] file_get_contents returns 403 forbidden

Issue

I am trying to make a sitescraper. I made it on my local machine and it works very fine there. When I execute the same on my server, it shows a 403 forbidden error. I am using the href="http://simplehtmldom.sourceforge.net/manual.htm">PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser. The error I get on the server is this:

Warning: file_get_contents(http://example.com/viewProperty.html?id=7715888) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/scraping/simple_html_dom.php on line 40

The line of code triggering it is:

$url="http://www.example.com/viewProperty.html?id=".$id;

$html=file_get_html($url);

I have checked the php.ini on the server and allow_url_fopen is On. Possible solution can be using curl, but I need to know where I am going wrong.

Solution

This is not a problem with your script, but with the resource you are requesting. The web server is returning the "forbidden" status code.

It could be that it blocks PHP scripts to prevent scraping, or your IP if you have made too many requests.

You should probably talk to the administrator of the remote server.

Answered By - Pekka

Answer Checked By - Dawn Plyler (WPSolving Volunteer)