Doesn't that figure? After you have added slashes, the string is bound to be longer!?
Yes, but I thought it was a problem with my php installation. Thanks for being arrogant though. I really appreciate it. If you would have read my post, you would have seen these few lines.
for some reason, it is only taking 16KB of the file now. I've done a few tests using strlen() and commenting out the unlink() to see what is happening and it seems to just stop reading the file at 16KB (actually 16,008 characters). The entire file makes it to the temporary directory. I've downloaded them from there and opened them to verify that.
It is very perplexing to me that updating the server would stop this script from working.
Perplexing means confusing. I was confused. I'm sorry I was unable to express myself monosyllabically enough for you to understand what my problem was.
I thought I was asking for help. After rereading my posts, I guess I was asking for smart-ass comments.
Anyway, I have figured out the problem. It was with my script. Apparently, in php 4.3.2, they "fixed" fread() so it stops at one block. If any of you care, file_get_contents() does most of what the code I previously posted does.
This problem is solved.
Thank you to those of you who actually thought about trying to help me.