I am downloading favicons using PHP and I spent a while troubleshooting before I noticed that `curl_exec` appears to work for some sites while `file_get_contents` does not. 

For example here is the response from `http://www.hellmanns.com/favicon.ico`

**file\_get\_contents**

> 
> Warning: file\_get\_contents(<http://hellmanns.com/favicon.ico>): failed
>  to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden in
>  /home/arcmarks/public\_html/arcmarks/source/class.FaviconFinder.php on
>  line 44
> 
> 
> 

**curl\_exec**

> 
> h(
>  e?Câ¬^ÏÉÌŒ$ B#(ÌlcYfƒy9C¥D;üès¨H8§¥§‹&5é¨QÛœJ©O5Öžfå§LíáÛÜß¸n Ü®Œa~ †}…l
>  “‘±“o}þþþ¥FHòòÞïïï/Á±mžç¿~L"-‚y¾i'öáÌ³²¶£A%«§¬?ùíÜ©„i­²~Âh\*®^?ÖáµÅÅ™ØezU[¢<4¡-5;/ïÀöæØaéìÐÌ†cN
>  ,;U@Nã½§õðî‰Õ¨îÑ¹k\_jÖšmîÙÌáÜÝ[æ™-ì·D¡?-s­wE‹# õ¹„$0”6&ï²1Ú¦Žž#”+$§HR¢@3€,3Â@üÿÿþÿÿP:H€ô¯VüáBâ™?„j
>  W~±¦ª†ôòóaQ ŸE7Ç|@F2?G2?åóãäå¸~Q
>  p,KEv(Cud).#lUH4mkr$gj[ahVf9&2Se/@ZLwPYiF0qOG?y>QbJx+cIMDzW!-]\*'t5B;<^%T6
>  \_XsR=` :n"A7831o N ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ€Àÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
> 
> 
>