cURL is the defacto standard for making HTTP requests using PHP. But there are alternatives. Here are a few.

http_file_get_contents.php

<?php
function http_file_get_contents( $url ) {
	$response = file_get_contents( $url );
	return $response;
}
?>

http_fopen.php

<?php

function http_fopen( $url ) {
	$params = array(
							'http' => array(
                'method' => 'GET'
	            )
					);
	 
	$ctx = stream_context_create($params);
	$fp = @fopen( $url, 'rb', false, $ctx);

	$response = '';
	while( is_resource( $fp ) &&
				 $fp &&
				 !feof( $fp ) ) {
		$response .= fread( $fp , 1024);     
  }

  fclose($fp);

  return $response;
}

?>

http_fsockopen.php

<?php
function http_fsockopen( $url )
{
    $parts=parse_url($url);

    $fp = fsockopen($parts['host'], 
        isset($parts['port'])?$parts['port']:80, 
        $errno, $errstr, 30);

    $path = ( isset( $parts['path'] )? $parts['path'] : '/' );

    $out = "GET ". $path ." HTTP/1.1\r\n";
    $out.= "Host: ".$parts['host']."\r\n";
    $out.= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";

    fwrite($fp, $out);

    $response = '';
    while( is_resource( $fp ) &&
           $fp &&
           !feof( $fp ) ) {
        $response .= fread( $fp , 1024);     
    }
    fclose($fp);

    return $response;
}
?>

test.php

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set("display_errors", 1);

require_once( 'http_fopen.php' );
require_once( 'http_fsockopen.php' );
require_once( 'http_file_get_contents.php' );

$url = 'http://www.leggetter.co.uk';

// $response = http_fopen( $url );
$response = http_fsockopen( $url );
//$response = http_file_get_contents( $url );

echo( $response );
?>