I am delighted to say that I have solved it.
It was in fact this PHP URL File Open issue, and the details in my 'Edit' above have the solution.
I had to make a 'custom-template fragment':
Here is exactly what I did:ssh into LAN server and at the command line:
mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
Actually, it looks like I had one of these already, but no harm done.
Create the template name (file)
99allow_url_fopen :
cd /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
touch 99allow_url_fopen
Edit the new custom-template file:
nano 99allow_url_fopen
and copy in the code given here -
http://wiki.contribs.org/Useful_Commands (Allow PHP URL File Open per ibay):
<Directory /home/e-smith/files/ibays/IBAYNAME/html>
php_admin_flag allow_url_fopen on
</Directory>
Put in the
correct ibay name, save and exit nano.
As per the instructions, expand:
expand-template /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
and finally, restart httpd.
/etc/init.d/httpd-e-smith restart
exit
And now currencies are updating beautifully