I'm running PHP 5 on a shared VPS. I have a couple little apps that are using file_get_conten ts() and readfile() for various kinds of (what should be) low-overhead, fast outbound accesses ... that is, I'm handing URLencoded arguments to a couple fast servers and grabbing small patches of XML in return.

When I enter these URL+argument strings in a browser (with the caches turned off), I get effectively instant responses -- so the remote...