What are the advantages and disadvantages of using fsockopen versus cURL for posting back to the PayPal system to validate IPN data in PHP scripts?

When posting back to the PayPal system to validate IPN data in PHP scripts, using cURL is generally preferred over fsockopen due to its simplicity and built-in support for various protocols. cURL also provides more options for customizing requests and handling responses. However, fsockopen can be useful in scenarios where cURL is not available or not suitable. 

// Using cURL to post back to PayPal for IPN validation
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query(['cmd' => '_notify-validate'] + $_POST));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

if ($response === 'VERIFIED') {
    // IPN data is valid
} else {
    // IPN data is invalid
}

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