I needed something much more robust than the standard way of using curl, and i also wanted to be able to easily make calls.

POST requests with curl require two things to be set:
CURLOPT_POST, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS

but theres also one param that may also be need to be true (this lets your server follow where the site tells it to go):
CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION

and if you wanted to use cookies you would need to set these two too:
CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR (for writing), CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE (for reading)

I usually spoof a browser useragent too:
CURLOPT_USERAGENT

here is the sexy function :)
and here is a login request:
So with that request we told google.com that we wanted to "login/post" with a username and password, we also told google that we were using firefox on a mac. Since its a login we dont want to have a response, so
we dont want to set CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER.

Our next request would theroetically request google.com after it was logged in with "foo:bar"
Simple as that :), this supersedes any of my old tutorials... I admit that when I wrote those i didn't truly understand the magic of cURL. This is the correct way to accomplish a login.

The following is all you need to know about all the options, its a great reference :)

Option	(values should be a bool for the following values of the option parameter)
CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER	TRUE to automatically set the Referer: field in requests where it follows a Location: redirect.
CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER	TRUE to return the raw output when CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER is used.
CURLOPT_COOKIESESSION	TRUE to mark this as a new cookie "session". It will force libcurl to ignore all cookies it is about to load that are "session cookies" from the previous session. By default, libcurl always stores and loads all cookies, independent if they are session cookies or not. Session cookies are cookies without expiry date and they are meant to be alive and existing for this "session" only.
CURLOPT_CRLF	TRUE to convert Unix newlines to CRLF newlines on transfers.
CURLOPT_DNS_USE_GLOBAL_CACHE	TRUE to use a global DNS cache. This option is not thread-safe and is enabled by default.
CURLOPT_FAILONERROR	TRUE to fail silently if the HTTP code returned is greater than or equal to 400. The default behavior is to return the page normally, ignoring the code.
CURLOPT_FILETIME	TRUE to attempt to retrieve the modification date of the remote document. This value can be retrieved using the CURLINFO_FILETIME option with curl_getinfo().
CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION	TRUE to follow any "Location: " header that the server sends as part of the HTTP header (note this is recursive, PHP will follow as many "Location: " headers that it is sent, unless CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS is set).
CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE	TRUE to force the connection to explicitly close when it has finished processing, and not be pooled for reuse.
CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT	TRUE to force the use of a new connection instead of a cached one.
CURLOPT_FTP_USE_EPRT	TRUE to use EPRT (and LPRT) when doing active FTP downloads. Use FALSE to disable EPRT and LPRT and use PORT only.
CURLOPT_FTP_USE_EPSV	TRUE to first try an EPSV command for FTP transfers before reverting back to PASV. Set to FALSE to disable EPSV.
CURLOPT_FTPAPPEND	TRUE to append to the remote file instead of overwriting it.
CURLOPT_FTPASCII	An alias of CURLOPT_TRANSFERTEXT. Use that instead.
CURLOPT_FTPLISTONLY	TRUE to only list the names of an FTP directory.
CURLOPT_HEADER	TRUE to include the header in the output.
CURLOPT_HTTPGET	TRUE to reset the HTTP request method to GET. Since GET is the default, this is only necessary if the request method has been changed.
CURLOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL	TRUE to tunnel through a given HTTP proxy.
CURLOPT_MUTE	TRUE to be completely silent with regards to the cURL functions.
CURLOPT_NETRC	TRUE to scan the ~/.netrc file to find a username and password for the remote site that a connection is being established with.
CURLOPT_NOBODY	TRUE to exclude the body from the output. Request method is then set to HEAD. Changing this to FALSE does not change it to GET.
CURLOPT_NOPROGRESS	TRUE to disable the progress meter for cURL transfers. Note: PHP automatically sets this option to TRUE, this should only be changed for debugging purposes.
CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL	TRUE to ignore any cURL function that causes a signal to be sent to the PHP process. This is turned on by default in multi-threaded SAPIs so timeout options can still be used.
CURLOPT_POST	TRUE to do a regular HTTP POST. This POST is the normal application/x-www-form-urlencoded kind, most commonly used by HTML forms.
CURLOPT_PUT	TRUE to HTTP PUT a file. The file to PUT must be set with CURLOPT_INFILE and CURLOPT_INFILESIZE.
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER	TRUE to return the transfer as a string of the return value of curl_exec() instead of outputting it out directly.
CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER	FALSE to stop cURL from verifying the peer's certificate. Alternate certificates to verify against can be specified with the CURLOPT_CAINFO option or a certificate directory can be specified with the CURLOPT_CAPATH option. CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST may also need to be TRUE or FALSE if CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER is disabled (it defaults to 2).
CURLOPT_TRANSFERTEXT	TRUE to use ASCII mode for FTP transfers. For LDAP, it retrieves data in plain text instead of HTML. On Windows systems, it will not set STDOUT to binary mode.
CURLOPT_UNRESTRICTED_AUTH	TRUE to keep sending the username and password when following locations (using CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION), even when the hostname has changed.
CURLOPT_UPLOAD	TRUE to prepare for an upload.
CURLOPT_VERBOSE	TRUE to output verbose information. Writes output to STDERR, or the file specified using CURLOPT_STDERR.

	(value should be an integer for the following values of the option parameter)
CURLOPT_BUFFERSIZE	The size of the buffer to use for each read. There is no guarantee this request will be fulfilled, however.
CURLOPT_CLOSEPOLICY	Either CURLCLOSEPOLICY_LEAST_RECENTLY_USED or CURLCLOSEPOLICY_OLDEST . There are three other CURLCLOSEPOLICY_ constants, but cURL does not support them yet.
CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT	The number of seconds to wait whilst trying to connect. Use 0 to wait indefinitely.
CURLOPT_DNS_CACHE_TIMEOUT	The number of seconds to keep DNS entries in memory. This option is set to 120 (2 minutes) by default.
CURLOPT_FTPSSLAUTH	The FTP authentication method (when is activated): CURLFTPAUTH_SSL (try SSL first), CURLFTPAUTH_TLS (try TLS first), or CURLFTPAUTH_DEFAULT (let cURL decide).
CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION	CURL_HTTP_VERSION_NONE (default, lets CURL decide which version to use), CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_0 (forces HTTP/1.0), or CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1 (forces HTTP/1.1).
CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH	The HTTP authentication method(s) to use. The options are: CURLAUTH_BASIC , CURLAUTH_DIGEST , CURLAUTH_GSSNEGOTIATE , CURLAUTH_NTLM , CURLAUTH_ANY , and CURLAUTH_ANYSAFE . The bitwise | (or) operator can be used to combine more than one method. If this is done, cURL will poll the server to see what methods it supports and pick the best one. CURLAUTH_ANY is an alias for CURLAUTH_BASIC | CURLAUTH_DIGEST | CURLAUTH_GSSNEGOTIATE | CURLAUTH_NTLM. CURLAUTH_ANYSAFE is an alias for CURLAUTH_DIGEST | CURLAUTH_GSSNEGOTIATE | CURLAUTH_NTLM.
CURLOPT_INFILESIZE	The expected size, in bytes, of the file when uploading a file to a remote site.
CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT	The transfer speed, in bytes per second, that the transfer should be below during CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_TIME seconds for PHP to consider the transfer too slow and abort.
CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_TIME	The number of seconds the transfer should be below CURLOPT_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT for PHP to consider the transfer too slow and abort.
CURLOPT_MAXCONNECTS	The maximum amount of persistent connections that are allowed. When the limit is reached, CURLOPT_CLOSEPOLICY is used to determine which connection to close.
CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS	The maximum amount of HTTP redirections to follow. Use this option alongside CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION.
CURLOPT_PORT	An alternative port number to connect to.
CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH	The HTTP authentication method(s) to use for the proxy connection. Use the same bitmasks as described in CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH. For proxy authentication, only CURLAUTH_BASIC and CURLAUTH_NTLM are currently supported.
CURLOPT_PROXYPORT	The port number of the proxy to connect to. This port number can also be set in CURLOPT_PROXY.
CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE	Either CURLPROXY_HTTP (default) or CURLPROXY_SOCKS5 .
CURLOPT_RESUME_FROM	The offset, in bytes, to resume a transfer from.
CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST	1 to check the existence of a common name in the SSL peer certificate. 2 to check the existence of a common name and also verify that it matches the hostname provided.
CURLOPT_SSLVERSION	The SSL version (2 or 3) to use. By default PHP will try to determine this itself, although in some cases this must be set manually.
CURLOPT_TIMECONDITION	How CURLOPT_TIMEVALUE is treated. Use CURL_TIMECOND_IFMODSINCE to return the page only if it has been modified since the time specified in CURLOPT_TIMEVALUE. If it hasn't been modified, a "304 Not Modified" header will be returned assuming CURLOPT_HEADER is TRUE. Use CURL_TIMECOND_IFUNMODSINCE for the reverse effect. CURL_TIMECOND_IFMODSINCE is the default.
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT	The maximum number of seconds to allow cURL functions to execute.
CURLOPT_TIMEVALUE	The time in seconds since January 1st, 1970. The time will be used by CURLOPT_TIMECONDITION. By default, CURL_TIMECOND_IFMODSINCE is used.

	(value should be a string for the following values of the option parameter)
CURLOPT_CAINFO	The name of a file holding one or more certificates to verify the peer with. This only makes sense when used in combination with CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER.
CURLOPT_CAPATH	A directory that holds multiple CA certificates. Use this option alongside CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER.
CURLOPT_COOKIE	The contents of the "Set-Cookie: " header to be used in the HTTP request.
CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE	The name of the file containing the cookie data. The cookie file can be in Netscape format, or just plain HTTP-style headers dumped into a file.
CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR	The name of a file to save all internal cookies to when the connection closes.
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST	A custom request method to use instead of "GET" or "HEAD" when doing a HTTP request. This is useful for doing "DELETE" or other, more obscure HTTP requests. Valid values are things like "GET", "POST", "CONNECT" and so on; i.e. Do not enter a whole HTTP request line here. For instance, entering "GET /index.html HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n" would be incorrect. Note: Don't do this without making sure the server supports the custom request method first.
CURLOPT_EGDSOCKET	Like CURLOPT_RANDOM_FILE, except a filename to an Entropy Gathering Daemon socket.
CURLOPT_ENCODING	The contents of the "Accept-Encoding: " header. This enables decoding of the response. Supported encodings are "identity", "deflate", and "gzip". If an empty string, "", is set, a header containing all supported encoding types is sent.
CURLOPT_FTPPORT	The value which will be used to get the IP address to use for the FTP "POST" instruction. The "POST" instruction tells the remote server to connect to our specified IP address. The string may be a plain IP address, a hostname, a network interface name (under Unix), or just a plain '-' to use the systems default IP address.
CURLOPT_INTERFACE	The name of the outgoing network interface to use. This can be an interface name, an IP address or a host name.
CURLOPT_KRB4LEVEL	The KRB4 (Kerberos 4) security level. Any of the following values (in order from least to most powerful) are valid: "clear", "safe", "confidential", "private".. If the string does not match one of these, "private" is used. Setting this option to NULL will disable KRB4 security. Currently KRB4 security only works with FTP transactions.
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS	The full data to post in a HTTP "POST" operation. To post a file, prepend a filename with @ and use the full path. This can either be passed as a urlencoded string like 'para1=val1&para2=val2&...' or as an array with the field name as key and field data as value.
CURLOPT_PROXY	The HTTP proxy to tunnel requests through.
CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD	A username and password formatted as "[username]:[password]" to use for the connection to the proxy.
CURLOPT_RANDOM_FILE	A filename to be used to seed the random number generator for SSL.
CURLOPT_RANGE	Range(s) of data to retrieve in the format "X-Y" where X or Y are optional. HTTP transfers also support several intervals, separated with commas in the format "X-Y,N-M".
CURLOPT_REFERER	The contents of the "Referer: " header to be used in a HTTP request.
CURLOPT_SSL_CIPHER_LIST	A list of ciphers to use for SSL. For example, RC4-SHA and TLSv1 are valid cipher lists.
CURLOPT_SSLCERT	The name of a file containing a PEM formatted certificate.
CURLOPT_SSLCERTPASSWD	The password required to use the CURLOPT_SSLCERT certificate.
CURLOPT_SSLCERTTYPE	The format of the certificate. Supported formats are "PEM" (default), "DER", and "ENG".
CURLOPT_SSLENGINE	The identifier for the crypto engine of the private SSL key specified in CURLOPT_SSLKEY.
CURLOPT_SSLENGINE_DEFAULT	The identifier for the crypto engine used for asymmetric crypto operations.
CURLOPT_SSLKEY	The name of a file containing a private SSL key.
CURLOPT_SSLKEYPASSWD	The secret password needed to use the private SSL key specified in CURLOPT_SSLKEY. Note: Since this option contains a sensitive password, remember to keep the PHP script it is contained within safe.
CURLOPT_SSLKEYTYPE	The key type of the private SSL key specified in CURLOPT_SSLKEY. Supported key types are "PEM" (default), "DER", and "ENG".
CURLOPT_URL	The URL to fetch. This can also be set when initializing a session with curl_init().
CURLOPT_USERAGENT	The contents of the "User-Agent: " header to be used in a HTTP request.
CURLOPT_USERPWD	A username and password formatted as "[username]:[password]" to use for the connection.

	(value should be an array for the following values of the option parameter)
CURLOPT_HTTP200ALIASES	An array of HTTP 200 responses that will be treated as valid responses and not as errors.
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER	An array of HTTP header fields to set.
CURLOPT_POSTQUOTE	An array of FTP commands to execute on the server after the FTP request has been performed.
CURLOPT_QUOTE	An array of FTP commands to execute on the server prior to the FTP request.

	(value should be a stream resource (using fopen(), for example) for the following values of the option parameter)
CURLOPT_FILE	The file that the transfer should be written to. The default is STDOUT (the browser window).
CURLOPT_INFILE	The file that the transfer should be read from when uploading.
CURLOPT_STDERR	An alternative location to output errors to instead of STDERR.
CURLOPT_WRITEHEADER	The file that the header part of the transfer is written to.

	(value should be a string that is the name of a valid callback function for the following values of the option parameter)
CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION	The name of a callback function where the callback function takes two parameters. The first is the cURL resource, the second is a string with the header data to be written. The header data must be written when using this callback function. Return the number of bytes written.
CURLOPT_PASSWDFUNCTION	The name of a callback function where the callback function takes three parameters. The first is the cURL resource, the second is a string containing a password prompt, and the third is the maximum password length. Return the string containing the password.
CURLOPT_READFUNCTION	The name of a callback function where the callback function takes two parameters. The first is the cURL resource, and the second is a string with the data to be read. The data must be read by using this callback function. Return the number of bytes read. Return 0 to signal EOF.
CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION	The name of a callback function where the callback function takes two parameters. The first is the cURL resource, and the second is a string with the data to be written. The data must be written by using this callback function. Must return the exact number of bytes written or this will fail.