Can you try making the HTTP request in PHP like this and check what you get?
<?php
// create curl resource
$ch = curl_init();
// set url
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "example.com");
//return the transfer as a string
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
// $output contains the output string
var_dump(curl_exec($ch));
var_dump(curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE));
// close curl resource to free up system resources
curl_close($ch);
"PHP message: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ';', expecting ',' or ')' in /var/www/localhost/htdocs/piwik/core/Updatecurltest.php on line 14"
So, I removed one ;
<?php
// create curl resource
$ch = curl_init();
// set url
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "api.matomo.org");
//return the transfer as a string
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
// $output contains the output string
var_dump(curl_exec($ch));
var_dump(curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE));
// close curl resource to free up system resources
curl_close($ch);
Sorry, but I meant using the full http://api.matomo.org/1.0/getLatestVersion/?piwik_version=3.3.0&php_version=7.1.16&mysql_version=5.5.5&release_channel=latest_stable&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstats.somedomain.com%2Findex.php&trigger=CoreHome&timezone=Europe%2FBerlin URL.