code: def rest(url, req="GET", data=None):
      
      load_variables()
  
      return _rest(base_url + url, req, data)
docs: Main function to be called from this module.
  
      send a request using method 'req' and to the url. the _rest() function
      will add the base_url to this, so 'url' should be something like '/ips'.