function connect_curl($url = '', $use_post = false, $vars = '', $return_data = 1, $timeout = 5, $ssl_verify_peer = false, $cert = '')
{
	$ch = curl_init($url);
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0); // set to 0 to eliminate header info from response
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);

	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, $return_data); // Returns response data instead of TRUE(1)

	if($cert != '') {
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLCERT, $cert);
	}		
	
	if ($use_post == true)
	{
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, rtrim( $vars, "& " )); // use HTTP POST to send form data
	}

	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, CURL_SSL_VERIFYPEER); // uncomment this line if you get no gateway response. ###
	
	if($cert != '') {
		curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
	}	
	
	if (CURL_PROXY_REQUIRED == true) {
		curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL, CURL_PROXY_TUNNEL_FLAG);
		curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
		curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, CURL_PROXY_SERVER_DETAILS);
    }
	
	$resp = curl_exec($ch); //execute post and get results
	curl_close ($ch);
	

	return $resp;
}