Geo location only working on localhost - php

Question

I have successfully implemented geo-location into my website on localhost. however upon uploading the website to an online server, it doesn't work anymore. i get a bool(false) error.
Geo.php
<?php
class Geo{
protected $api = 'http://www.telize.com/geoip/%s';
protected $properties = [];
public function __get($key){
if (isset($this->properties[$key])){
return $this->properties[$key];
}
return null;
}
public function request($ip){
$url = sprintf($this->api, $ip);
$data = $this->sendRequest($url);
$this->properties = json_decode($data, true);
}
protected function sendRequest($url){
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
return curl_exec($curl);
}
}
?>
index.php
<?php
include ("functions/functions.php");
$ip = getIp();
require 'Geo.php';
$geo = new Geo;
$geo->request('$ip');
$location = $geo->city . ',&nbsp' .$geo->region;
?>
getIp() function is located in the function.php file which i included, that works fine so I've excluded it.

Answer 1

Code improvement.
Geo.php
<?php
class Geo {
protected $api = 'http://www.telize.com/geoip/%s';
protected $properties = [];
public function __get($key)
{
if (isset($this->properties[$key]))
return $this->properties[$key];
return null;
}
public function request($ip) {
$url = sprintf($this->api, $ip);
$data = $this->sendRequest($url);
if($data !== false) $this->properties = json_decode($data, true);
return ($data !== false);
}
protected function sendRequest($url) {
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
return curl_exec($curl);
}
}
?>
index.php
<?php
include ("functions/functions.php");
$ip = getIp();
require 'Geo.php';
$geo = new Geo;
if($geo->request($ip)) {
$location = $geo->city . ',&nbsp' .$geo->region;
}
else {
// Location not found
}
?>