Documentation on fsockopen

fsockopen = Open Internet or Unix domain socket connection

Initiates a socket connection to the resource specified by hostname.

PHP supports targets in the Internet and Unix domains as described in List of Supported Socket Transports. A list of supported transports can also be retrieved using stream_get_transports(). The socket will by default be opened in blocking mode. You can switch it to non-blocking mode by using stream_set_blocking(). The function stream_socket_client() is similar but provides a richer set of options, including non-blocking connection and the ability to provide a stream context.

Usage, params, and more on fsockopen

resource fsockopen ( string $hostname [, int $port = -1 [, int &$errno [, string &$errstr [, float $timeout = ini_get("default_socket_timeout") ]]]] )

hostname If OpenSSL support is installed, you may prefix the hostname with either ssl:// or tls:// to use an SSL or TLS client connection over TCP/IP to connect to the remote host. port The port number. This can be omitted and skipped with -1 for transports that do not use ports, such as unix://. errno If provided, holds the system level error number that occurred in the system-level connect() call. If the value returned in errno is 0 and the function returned FALSE, it is an indication that the error occurred before the connect() call. This is most likely due to a problem initializing the socket. errstr The error message as a string. timeout The connection timeout, in seconds. Note: If you need to set a timeout for reading/writing data over the socket, use stream_set_timeout(), as the timeout parameter to fsockopen() only applies while connecting the socket.

fsockopen() returns a file pointer which may be used together with the other file functions (such as fgets(), fgetss(), fwrite(), fclose(), and feof()). If the call fails, it will return FALSE

Throws E_WARNING if hostname is not a valid domain.

Notes and warnings on fsockopen

UDP sockets will sometimes appear to have opened without an error, even if the remote host is unreachable. The error will only become apparent when you read or write data to/from the socket. The reason for this is because UDP is a "connectionless" protocol, which means that the operating system does not try to establish a link for the socket until it actually needs to send or receive data. Note

Basic example of how to use: fsockopen

Example #1 fsockopen() Example

<?php
$fp 
fsockopen("www.example.com"80$errno$errstr30);
if (!
$fp) {
    echo 
"$errstr ($errno)<br />\n";
} else {
    
$out "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n";
    
$out .= "Host: www.example.com\r\n";
    
$out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
    
fwrite($fp$out);
    while (!
feof($fp)) {
        echo 
fgets($fp128);
    }
    
fclose($fp);
}
?>

Example #2 Using UDP connection

The example below shows how to retrieve the day and time from the UDP service "daytime" (port 13) in your own machine.

<?php
$fp 
fsockopen("udp://127.0.0.1"13$errno$errstr);
if (!
$fp) {
    echo 
"ERROR: $errno - $errstr<br />\n";
} else {
    
fwrite($fp"\n");
    echo 
fread($fp26);
    
fclose($fp);
}
?>

Other code examples of fsockopen being used

This script checks specific ports so you need to have the correct port open on the server for this to work.

E.g if i have a windows domain controller and it is servering LDAP then the following would be used to check it is online:
<?php
chkServer
("MyDC", "389");
?>

for a webserver:
<?php
chkServer
("MyWebSvr", "80");
?>

etc etc
--------------------------------------------------------

<?php
// check if a server is up by connecting to a port
function chkServer($host, $port)
{  
   
$hostip = @gethostbyname($host); // resloves IP from Hostname returns hostname on failure
   
   
if ($hostip == $host) // if the IP is not resloved
   
{
        echo
"Server is down or does not exist";
    }
    else
    {
        if (!
$x = @fsockopen($hostip, $port, $errno, $errstr, 5)) // attempt to connect
       
{
            echo
"Server is down";
        }
        else
        {
            echo
"Server is up";
            if (
$x)
            {
                @
fclose($x); //close connection
           
}
        } 
    }
}
?>

It appears that in PHP 5.6.0 (at least the version in Debian jessie, with openssl 1.0.1h-3), this function *is* now validating SSL certificates (in a variety of ways). First, it appears to fail for untrusted certificates (i.e. no matching CA trusted locally), and secondly, it appears to fail for mismatched hostnames in the request and certificate.

---------
$ echo "<?php echo fsockopen(\"ssl://localhost\", 993); ?>" | php -a
Interactive mode enabled

PHP Warning
fsockopen(): Peer certificate CN=`my.test.server' did not match expected CN=`localhost' in - on line 1
PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): Failed to enable crypto in - on line 1
PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): unable to connect to ssl://localhost:993 (Unknown error) in - on line 1
----------
$ echo "<?php echo fsockopen(\"ssl://my.test.server\", 993); ?>" | php -a
Interactive mode enabled

PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:
error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed in - on line 1
PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): Failed to enable crypto in - on line 1
PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): unable to connect to ssl://my.test.server:993 (Unknown error) in - on line 1
---------
#installed CA locally
---------
$ echo "<?php echo fsockopen(\"ssl://my.test.server\", 993); ?>" | php -a
Interactive mode enabled

Resource id #1

To check if a Url is Online (with http and https)
Using @fgets to hide Warning when using SSL
(Bug: "Warning: function.fgets SSL: fatal protocol error", http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=23220)

<?php

   
function isOnline($url) {
        if (!
$url_info = parse_url($url)) {
            return
false;   
        }
       
        switch (
$url_info['scheme']) {
            case
'https':
               
$scheme = 'ssl://';
               
$port = 443;
                break;
            case
'http':
            default:
               
$scheme = '';
               
$port = 80;   
        }
       
       
$data = "";
       
$fid = @fsockopen($scheme . $url_info['host'], $port, $errno, $errstr, 30);
        if (
$fid) {
           
fputs($fid, 'HEAD ' . (isset($url_info['path'])? $url_info['path']: '/') . (isset($url_info['query'])? '?' . $url_info['query']: '') . " HTTP/1.0\r\n" .
                       
"Connection: close\r\n" .
                       
'Host: ' . $url_info['host'] . "\r\n\r\n");   
            while (!
feof($fid)) {
               
$data .= @fgets($fid, 128);
            }
           
fclose($fid);
            return !empty(
$data);
        } else {
            return
false;
        }
    }

?>

A simple proxy list checker. You can check a list ip:port if that port is opened on that IP.

<?php

$fisier
= file_get_contents('proxy_list.txt'); // Read the file with the proxy list
$linii = explode("\n", $fisier); // Get each proxy
$fisier = fopen("bune.txt", "a"); // Here we will write the good ones

for($i = 0; $i < count($linii) - 1; $i++) test($linii[$i]); // Test each proxy

function test($proxy)
{
  global
$fisier;
 
$splited = explode(':',$proxy); // Separate IP and port
 
if($con = @fsockopen($splited[0], $splited[1], $eroare, $eroare_str, 3))
  {
   
fwrite($fisier, $proxy . "\n"); // Check if we can connect to that IP and port
   
print $proxy . '<br>'; // Show the proxy
   
fclose($con); // Close the socket handle
 
}
}

fclose($fisier); // Close the file

?>

This is a very fast program for test a form or link (many times).
<?php
$repeat 
= 100// How many times repeat the test

$timeout = 100// Max time for stablish the conection
$size    = 16;   // Bytes will be read (and display). 0 for read all

$server  = '127.0.0.1';            // IP address
$host    = 'www.example.net';             // Domain name
$target  = '/poll/answer.asp';        // Specific program
$referer = 'http://www.example.com/';    // Referer
$port    = 80;

// Setup an array of fields to get with then create the get string
$gets = array ( 'get_field_1' => 'somevalue',
               
'get_field_2' => 'somevalue' );

// Setup an array of fields to post with then create the post string
$posts = array ( 'post_field_1' => 'somevalue',
                
'post_field_2' => 'somevalue' );

// That's all. Now the program proccess $repeat times

$method = "GET";
if (
is_array( $gets ) ) {
   
$getValues = '?';
    foreach(
$gets AS $name => $value ){
       
$getValues .= urlencode( $name ) . "=" . urlencode( $value ) . '&';
    }
   
$getValues = substr( $getValues, 0, -1 );
} else {
   
$getValues = '';
}

if (
is_array( $posts ) ) {
    foreach(
$posts AS $name => $value ){
       
$postValues .= urlencode( $name ) . "=" . urlencode( $value ) . '&';
    }
   
$postValues = substr( $postValues, 0, -1 );
   
$method = "POST";
} else {
   
$postValues = '';
}

$request  = "$method $target$getValues HTTP/1.1\r\n";
$request .= "Host: $host\r\n";
$request .= 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1) ';
$request .= "Gecko/20021204\r\n";
$request .= 'Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,';
$request .= 'text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,video/x-mng,image/png,';
$request .= "image/jpeg,image/gif;q=0.2,text/css,*/*;q=0.1\r\n";
$request .= "Accept-Language: en-us, en;q=0.50\r\n";
$request .= "Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, compress;q=0.9\r\n";
$request .= "Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1, utf-8;q=0.66, *;q=0.66\r\n";
$request .= "Keep-Alive: 300\r\n";
$request .= "Connection: keep-alive\r\n";
$request .= "Referer: $referer\r\n";
$request .= "Cache-Control: max-age=0\r\n";

if (
$method == "POST" ) {
   
$lenght = strlen( $postValues );
   
$request .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
   
$request .= "Content-Length: $lenght\r\n";
   
$request .= "\r\n";
   
$request .= $postValues;
}

for (
$i = 0; $i < $repeat; $i++ ) {
   
$socket  = fsockopen( $server, $port, $errno, $errstr, $timeout );
   
fputs( $socket, $request );
    if (
$size > 0 ) {
       
$ret = fgets( $socket, $size );
    } else {
       
$ret = '';
        while ( !
feof( $socket ) ) {
           
$ret .= fgets( $socket, 4096 );
        }
    }
   
fclose( $socket );
    echo
"<hr> $i -- $content $ret";
}
?>

Alejandro Salamanca

Make sure you don't use a double line break ("\r\n\r\n") during the middle of your header, as it appears to end the header.

This means a \r\n\r\n before "Connection: close\r\n\r\n" will not correctly tell fsockopen to close the request, leading to a max timeout error.

Some of the code on this page does this. It took me days to figure out. Example:

<?php
   
// Wrong:
   
fwrite($fp, "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n");
   
fwrite($fp, "Host: php.net\r\n");
   
fwrite($fp, "User-Agent: example\r\n\r\n");
   
fwrite($fp, "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n");

   
// Right:
   
fwrite($fp, "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n" );
   
fwrite($fp, "Host: php.net\r\n");
   
fwrite($fp, "User-Agent: example\r\n");
   
fwrite($fp, "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n");
?>

note:
the default protocol - if not given - seems to be tcp://

Improved HTTP/1.1 chunked transfer-encoding example.

The sample code given below by Jack does not function correctly when run against a recent version of Apache (I'm assuming that this did once work, but from the HTTP/1.1 spec I can only assume if it did work it was based mostly on luck).

<?php

$header
= "";
$response = "";

// connect
if (!($request=fsockopen('example.com',80,$errno,$errstr))) exit($errstr);
else {
  
socket_set_timeout($request,10);
  
// send request
  
fwrite($request,$post);
  
// get header
  
do $header.=fread($request,1); while (!preg_match('/\\r\\n\\r\\n$/',$header));
  
// check for chunked encoding
  
if (preg_match('/Transfer\\-Encoding:\\s+chunked\\r\\n/',$header))
      do {
        
$byte = "";
        
$chunk_size="";
         do {
           
$chunk_size.=$byte;
           
$byte=fread($request,1);
         } while (
$byte!="\\r");      // till we match the CR
        
fread($request, 1);         // also drop off the LF
        
$chunk_size=hexdec($chunk_size); // convert to real number
        
$response.=fread($request,$chunk_size);
        
fread($request,2);          // ditch the CRLF that trails the chunk
     
} while ($chunk_size);         // till we reach the 0 length chunk (end marker)
  
else {
     
// check for specified content length
     
if (preg_match('/Content\\-Length:\\s+([0-9]*)\\r\\n/',$header,$matches)) {
        
$response=fread($request,$matches[1]);
      } else {
        
// not a nice way to do it (may also result in extra CRLF which trails the real content???)
        
while (!feof($request)) $response .= fread($request, 4096);
      }
   }
  
// close connection
  
fclose($request);
}

// do something useful with the response
print($header);
print(
$response);

?>

Richard.

just a quick note for users attempting https and thinking they must resort to curl or alternate methods -
you can use fsockopen, just read the docs closely.  basically they are saying to use 'ssl://' for a HTTPS (SSL) web request.

so this would work for authorize.net, and others; even for that paypal IPN - however I think it would be best to leave the site and deal with paypal's form:

<?php
$host
= "something.example.com";
$port = 443;
$path = "/the/url/path/file.php"; //or .dll, etc. for authnet, etc.

//you will need to setup an array of fields to post with
//then create the post string
$formdata = array ( "x_field" => "somevalue");
//build the post string
 
foreach($formdata AS $key => $val){
   
$poststring .= urlencode($key) . "=" . urlencode($val) . "&";
  }
// strip off trailing ampersand
$poststring = substr($poststring, 0, -1);

$fp = fsockopen("ssl://".$host, $port, $errno, $errstr, $timeout = 30);

if(!
$fp){
//error tell us
echo "$errstr ($errno)\n";
  
}else{

 
//send the server request
 
fputs($fp, "POST $path HTTP/1.1\r\n");
 
fputs($fp, "Host: $host\r\n");
 
fputs($fp, "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n");
 
fputs($fp, "Content-length: ".strlen($poststring)."\r\n");
 
fputs($fp, "Connection: close\r\n\r\n");
 
fputs($fp, $poststring . "\r\n\r\n");

 
//loop through the response from the server
 
while(!feof($fp)) {
    echo
fgets($fp, 4096);
  }
 
//close fp - we are done with it
 
fclose($fp);
}
?>

This is a simple example for sending and retrieve SOAP message by using fsockopen:

<?php
$fp
= @fsockopen("www.example.com", 80, $errno, $errstr);
if (!
$fp) {
    echo
"$errstr ($errno)<br />\n";
} else {

$soap_out  = "POST /example/exampleServer.php HTTP/1.0\r\n";
$soap_out .= "Host: www.example.com\r\n";
$soap_out .= "User-Agent: MySOAPisOKGuys \r\n";
$soap_out .= "Content-Type: text/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n";
$soap_out .= "Content-Length: 512\r\n\r\n";
$soap_out .= '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns5973:contact xmlns:ns5973="http://tempuri.org">
<__numeric_0><id  xsi:nil="true"/></__numeric_0>
</ns5973:contact>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>'
;

   
fputs($fp, $soap_out, strlen($soap_out));  // send request SOAP

   
echo "<xmp>".$out."</xmp>";

    while (!
feof($fp)) {
       
$soap_in . = fgets($fp, 100);
    }

    echo
"<xmp>$soap_in</xmp>";   //display response SOAP

   
fclose($fp);
}
?>

And this is an example result:

POST /soap/example/contactServer.php HTTP/1.0
Host: www.example.com
User-Agent: MySOAPisOKGuys
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Length: 512
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope
SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<SOAP-ENV:Body><ns5973:contact
xmlns:ns5973="http://tempuri.org"><__numeric_0><id
xsi:nil="true"/></__numeric_0></ns5973:contact>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:03:26 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.23 (Win32)
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.1.1
X-SOAP-Server: MySOAPisOKGuys
Content-Length: 625
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope
SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<SOAP-ENV:Body><ns1:contactResponse
xmlns:ns1="http://tempuri.org">
<return xsi:type="xsd:string">
</return>
</ns1:contactResponse>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

<?php
// This script is an example of posting multiple files using
// fsockopen.
// The tricky part is making sure the HTTP headers and file boundaries are acceptable to the target webserver.
// This script is for example purposes only and could/should be improved upon.

$host='targethost';
$port=80;
$path='/test/socket/file_upload/receive_files.php';

// the file you want to upload
$file_array[0] = "dingoboy.gif"; // the file
$file_array[1] = "dingoboy2.gif"; // the file
$file_array[2] = "dingoboy3.gif"; // the file
$content_type = "image/gif"; // the file mime type
//$content_type = "text/plain";
//echo "file_array[0]:$file_array[0]<br><br>";

srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$boundary = "---------------------------".substr(md5(rand(0,32000)),0,10);

$data = "--$boundary";

for(
$i=0;$i<count($file_array);$i++){
  
$content_file = join("", file($file_array[$i]));

  
$data.="
Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file"
.($i+1)."\"; filename=\"$file_array[$i]\"
Content-Type:
$content_type

$content_file
--
$boundary";

}

$data.="--\r\n\r\n";

$msg =
"POST $path HTTP/1.0
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=
$boundary
Content-Length: "
.strlen($data)."\r\n\r\n";

$result="";

// open the connection
$f = fsockopen($host, $port);

fputs($f,$msg.$data);

// get the response
while (!feof($f)) $result .= fread($f,32000);

fclose($f);

?>

Here is my fsockopen-based HTTP request fonction (GET and POST) :

<?php
function http_request(
   
$verb = 'GET',             /* HTTP Request Method (GET and POST supported) */
   
$ip,                       /* Target IP/Hostname */
   
$port = 80,                /* Target TCP port */
   
$uri = '/',                /* Target URI */
   
$getdata = array(),        /* HTTP GET Data ie. array('var1' => 'val1', 'var2' => 'val2') */
   
$postdata = array(),       /* HTTP POST Data ie. array('var1' => 'val1', 'var2' => 'val2') */
   
$cookie = array(),         /* HTTP Cookie Data ie. array('var1' => 'val1', 'var2' => 'val2') */
   
$custom_headers = array(), /* Custom HTTP headers ie. array('Referer: http://localhost/ */
   
$timeout = 1,           /* Socket timeout in seconds */
   
$req_hdr = false,          /* Include HTTP request headers */
   
$res_hdr = false           /* Include HTTP response headers */
   
)
{
   
$ret = '';
   
$verb = strtoupper($verb);
   
$cookie_str = '';
   
$getdata_str = count($getdata) ? '?' : '';
   
$postdata_str = '';

    foreach (
$getdata as $k => $v)
               
$getdata_str .= urlencode($k) .'='. urlencode($v) . '&';

    foreach (
$postdata as $k => $v)
       
$postdata_str .= urlencode($k) .'='. urlencode($v) .'&';

    foreach (
$cookie as $k => $v)
       
$cookie_str .= urlencode($k) .'='. urlencode($v) .'; ';

   
$crlf = "\r\n";
   
$req = $verb .' '. $uri . $getdata_str .' HTTP/1.1' . $crlf;
   
$req .= 'Host: '. $ip . $crlf;
   
$req .= 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 Firefox/3.6.12' . $crlf;
   
$req .= 'Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8' . $crlf;
   
$req .= 'Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5' . $crlf;
   
$req .= 'Accept-Encoding: deflate' . $crlf;
   
$req .= 'Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7' . $crlf;
   
    foreach (
$custom_headers as $k => $v)
       
$req .= $k .': '. $v . $crlf;
       
    if (!empty(
$cookie_str))
       
$req .= 'Cookie: '. substr($cookie_str, 0, -2) . $crlf;
       
    if (
$verb == 'POST' && !empty($postdata_str))
    {
       
$postdata_str = substr($postdata_str, 0, -1);
       
$req .= 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' . $crlf;
       
$req .= 'Content-Length: '. strlen($postdata_str) . $crlf . $crlf;
       
$req .= $postdata_str;
    }
    else
$req .= $crlf;
   
    if (
$req_hdr)
       
$ret .= $req;
   
    if ((
$fp = @fsockopen($ip, $port, $errno, $errstr)) == false)
        return
"Error $errno: $errstr\n";
   
   
stream_set_timeout($fp, 0, $timeout * 1000);
   
   
fputs($fp, $req);
    while (
$line = fgets($fp)) $ret .= $line;
   
fclose($fp);
   
    if (!
$res_hdr)
       
$ret = substr($ret, strpos($ret, "\r\n\r\n") + 4);
   
    return
$ret;
}
?>

Example usages :

<?php
echo http_request('GET', 'www.php.net');
echo
http_request('GET', 'www.php.net', 80, '/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php');
echo
http_request('GET', 'www.php.net', 80, '/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php', array('get1' => 'v_get1'), array(), array('cookie1' => 'v_cookie1'), array('X-My-Header' => 'My Value'));
?>

[EDIT BY danbrown AT php DOT net: Contains a bugfix provided by "Wrinkled Cheese" on 24-JUN-2011 to fix the $getdata foreach() loop; another bugfix provided by Suat Secmen on 12-JAN-2012 to fix a $timeout = 1000, then stream_set_timeout($fp, 0, $timeout * 1000), equaling 1,000 seconds.]

thought you guys may appreciate this function, allows you to pass an array of urls to download and does so simultaneously using non-blocking sockets, then returns the data in an array.

<?php
// function connects to an array of URLS at the same time
// and returns an array of results.

function multiHTTP ($urlArr) {
$sockets = Array(); // socket array!
$urlInfo = Array(); // info arr
$retDone = Array();
$retData = Array();
$errno   = Array();
$errstr  = Array();
for (
$x=0;$x<count($urlArr);$x++) {
 
$urlInfo[$x] = parse_url($urlArr[$x]);
 
$urlInfo[$x][port] = ($urlInfo[$x][port]) ? $urlInfo[$x][port] : 80;
 
$urlInfo[$x][path] = ($urlInfo[$x][path]) ? $urlInfo[$x][path] : "/";
 
$sockets[$x] = fsockopen($urlInfo[$x][host], $urlInfo[$x][port],
                          
$errno[$x], $errstr[$x], 30);
 
socket_set_blocking($sockets[$x],FALSE);
 
$query = ($urlInfo[$x][query]) ? "?" . $urlInfo[$x][query] : "";
 
fputs($sockets[$x],"GET " . $urlInfo[$x][path] . "$query HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: " .
       
$urlInfo[$x][host] . "\r\n\r\n");
}
// ok read the data from each one
$done = false;
while (!
$done) {
  for (
$x=0; $x < count($urlArr);$x++) {
   if (!
feof($sockets[$x])) {
    if (
$retData[$x]) {
    
$retData[$x] .= fgets($sockets[$x],128);
    } else {
    
$retData[$x] = fgets($sockets[$x],128);
    }
   } else {
   
$retDone[$x] = 1;
   }
  }
 
$done = (array_sum($retDone) == count($urlArr));
}
return
$retData;
}
?>

To make a telnet connection with a Cisco router:

<?php
$cfgServer
= "nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn"//IP of your router
$cfgPort    = 23;                //port, 22 if SSH
$cfgTimeOut = 10;

$usenet = fsockopen($cfgServer, $cfgPort, $errno, $errstr, $cfgTimeOut);

if(!
$usenet)
        {
        echo
"Connexion failed\n";
        exit();
        }
else
        {
        echo
"Connected\n<BR>";
       
fputs ($usenet, "toto\r\n");
       
fputs ($usenet, "en\r\n");
       
fputs ($usenet, "tutu\r\n");
       
fputs ($usenet, "exit\r\n");
        while (!
feof($usenet))
                {
                echo
". ".fgets($usenet, 128)."<BR>\n";
                }
        }
?>

Then you will have:
Connected
. ïż½ïż½ïż½ïż½ïż½ïż½ïż½ïż½
.
. User Access Verification
.
. Password:
. testXB>en
. Password:
. testXB#exit
.

For some reason the default FreeBSD 7.0 port (jailed environment) breaks fsockopen() on SSL URLs, returning a constant stream of nothing!  In my case this resulted in php-cgi bringing down lighttpd completely, in rapid time!  Avoid FreeBSD/jails/fsockopen + SSL.  Use curl_init() instead.

<?php
/************************************************************
* Author: Richard Lajaunie
* Mail : richard.lajaunie@cote-azur.cci.fr
*
* subject : this script retreive all mac-addresses on all ports
* of a Cisco 3548 Switch by a telnet connection
*
* base on the script by: xbensemhoun at t-systems dot fr
**************************************************************/

if ( array_key_exists(1, $argv) ){
  
$cfgServer = $argv[1];
}else{
   echo
"ex: 'php test.php 10.0.0.0' \n";
   exit;
}

$cfgPort    = 23;                //port, 22 if SSH
$cfgTimeOut = 10;

$usenet = fsockopen($cfgServer, $cfgPort, $errno, $errstr), $cfgTimeOut);

if(!
$usenet){
       echo
"Connexion failed\n";
       exit();
}else{
       echo
"Connected\n";
      
fputs ($usenet, "password\r\n");
      
fputs ($usenet, "en\r\n");
      
fputs ($usenet, "password\r\n");
      
fputs ($usenet, "sh mac-address-table\r\n");
      
fputs ($usenet, " "); // this space bar is this for long output
     
       // this skip non essential text
      
$j = 0;
       while (
$j<16){
      
fgets($usenet, 128);
      
$j++;
       }
  
stream_set_timeout($usenet, 2); // set the timeout for the fgets
  
$j = 0;
       while (!
feof($usenet)){
      
$ret = fgets($usenet, 128);
      
$ret = str_replace("\r", '', $ret);
      
$ret = str_replace("\n", "", $ret);
       if  (
ereg("FastEthernet", $ret)){
           echo
"$ret \n";
       }
       if (
ereg('--More--', $ret) ){
          
fputs ($usenet, " "); // for following page
      
}
      
$info = stream_get_meta_data($usenet);
       if (
$info['timed_out']) {
          
$j++;
       }
       if (
$j >2){
          
fputs ($usenet, "lo");
           break;
       }
   }
}
echo
"End.\r\n";
?>

If you have to use a proxy to make requests outside of your local network, you may use this class:

<?php
/*
*
* No Proxy Authentification Implemented; PHP 5
*
*/

class RemoteFopenViaProxy {

    private
$result;
    private
$proxy_name;
    private
$proxy_port;
    private
$request_url;

    public function
get_proxy_name() {
        return
$this->proxy_name;
    }

    public function
set_proxy_name($n) {
       
$this->proxy_name = $n;
    }

    public function
get_proxy_port() {
        return
$this->proxy_port;
    }

    public function
set_proxy_port($p) {
       
$this->proxy_port = $p;
    }

    public function
get_request_url() {
        return
$this->request_url;
    }

    public function
set_request_url($u) {
       
$this->request_url = $u;
    }

    public function
get_result() {
        return
$this->result;
    }

    public function
set_result($r) {
       
$this->result = $r;
    }

    private function
get_url_via_proxy() {

       
$proxy_fp = fsockopen($this->get_proxy_name(), $this->get_proxy_port());

        if (!
$proxy_fp) {
            return
false;
        }
       
fputs($proxy_fp, "GET " . $this->get_request_url() . " HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: " . $this->get_proxy_name() . "\r\n\r\n");
        while (!
feof($proxy_fp)) {
           
$proxy_cont .= fread($proxy_fp, 4096);
        }
       
fclose($proxy_fp);
       
$proxy_cont = substr($proxy_cont, strpos($proxy_cont, "\r\n\r\n") + 4);
        return
$proxy_cont;

    }

    private function
get_url($url) {
       
$fd = @ file($url);
        if (
$fd) {
            return
$fd;
        } else {
            return
false;
        }
    }

    private function
logger($line, $file) {
       
$fd = fopen($file . ".log", "a+");
       
fwrite($fd, date("Ymd G:i:s") . " - " . $file . " - " . $line . "\n");
       
fclose($fd);
    }

    function
__construct($url, $proxy_name = "", $proxy_port = "") {

       
$this->set_request_url($url);
       
$this->set_proxy_name($proxy_name);
       
$this->set_proxy_port($proxy_port);

    }

    public function
request_via_proxy() {

       
$this->set_result($this->get_url_via_proxy());
        if (!
$this->get_result()) {
           
$this->logger("FAILED: get_url_via_proxy(" . $this->get_proxy_name() . "," . $this->get_proxy_port() . "," . $this->get_request_url() . ")", "RemoteFopenViaProxyClass.log");
        }
    }

    public function
request_without_proxy() {

       
$this->set_result($this->get_url($this->get_request_url()));
        if (!
$this->get_result()) {
           
$this->logger("FAILED: get_url(" . $url . ")", "RemoteFopenViaProxyClass.log");
        }
    }
}
?>

Use it this way:

<?php
// call constructor
$obj = new RemoteFopenViaProxy($insert_request_url, $insert_proxy_name, $insert_proxy_port);
// change settings after object generation
$obj->set_proxy_name($insert_proxy_name);
$obj->set_proxy_port($insert_proxy_port);
$obj->set_request_url($insert_request_url);
$obj->request_via_proxy();
echo
$obj->get_result();
?>

If there are errors during execution, the script tries to write some useful information into a log file.

I ran into a problem where I needed to make an fsockopen() style connection from one specific ip address on a server with multiple ip aliases. Unfortunately fsockopen() does not allow the specification of a source address making it unsuitable. I could not find any other solutions elsewhere so here is mine for those with php 5.1.0 or greater.

<?php
// connect to the internet using the '192.168.0.100' IP
$opts = array('socket' => array('bindto' => '192.168.0.100:0'));

$context = stream_context_create($opts);

$fp = stream_socket_client("tcp://www.example.com:80", $errno, $errstr, 30, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT, $context);
?>

Now $fp can be used like a resource handle returned by a vanilla fsockopen() call!

The DEFAULT stream timeout is set according to default_socket_timeout in your php.ini file.  Took forever for me to dig that up....

If you are using fsockopen to access webpage, but come across a redirect (Location: ) in the header and want to find and follow the redirect as in this snippet:

<?php
while (!feof($fp)) {
  
$line=fgets($fp, 1024);               
   if (
stristr($line,"location:")!="") {
   
$redirect=preg_replace("/location:/i","",$line);
   }
}
?>

Then don't forget to <?php $redirect = trim($redirect); ?> before trying to follow this new link as $redirect actually has a \r\n on the end of it and won't give you a valid path in the next iteration otherwise. A six hour bug.

Saul Dobney

When you try to POST/GET requests via HTTPS over SSL/TLS you should notice this:

<?php
// preconditions
$port = 80 | 443
$host
= "www.example.com";
$method = "POST" | "GET";
$contenttype = "text/html" | "text/plain" | "text/xml" | ...;
$data = "<something>";

// script
if($port == 443)
     
$sslhost = "ssl://".$host;
else
     
$sslhost = $host;
$fp = fsockopen($sslhost, $port);
fputs($fp, "$method $path HTTP/1.1\r\n");
fputs($fp, "Host: $host\r\n");
fputs($fp, "Content-type: $contenttype\r\n");
fputs($fp, "Content-length: ".strlen($data)."\r\n");
fputs($fp, "Connection: close\r\n");
fputs($fp, "\r\n");
?>

The server usually does not understand the HTTP-header "Host: XXX" if you provide it with the trailing "ssl://" used by fsockopen(); If you do it anyway you probably get a HTTP 400 back as response. :-)

The following function performs pop3 authentication. Returns NULL on error, or true/false to indicate username/password matching:

$address is the hostname of the server and $ssl is a boolean that indicates whether an SSL connection is requested.

<?php
function pop3authCheck($username, $password, $address, $ssl)
{
    if (
$ssl)
       
$uri="ssl://$address:995";
    else
       
$uri="tcp://$address:110";

   
$fp=fsockopen($uri);

    if (!
$fp)
        return(
NULL);

   
$st=fgets($fp, 512);
    if (
substr($st, 0, 3)!="+OK")
    {
       
fclose($fp);
        return(
NULL);
    }

   
$st="USER $username\n";
    if (
fwrite($fp, $st)!=strlen($st))
    {
       
fclose($fp);
        return(
NULL);
    }

   
$st=fgets($fp, 512);
    if (
substr($st, 0, 3)!="+OK")
    {
       
fclose($fp);
        return(
NULL);
    }

   
$st="PASS $password\n";
    if (
fwrite($fp, $st)!=strlen($st))
    {
       
fclose($fp);
        return(
NULL);
    }

   
$st=fgets($fp, 512);
   
fclose($fp);
    if (
substr($st, 0, 3)=="+OK")
        return(
true);
    else if (
substr($st, 0, 4)=="+ERR")
        return(
false);
    else
        return(
NULL);
}
?>

Here's a function to just fetch the contents behind an URL.

<?php
function fetchURL( $url ) {
   
$url_parsed = parse_url($url);
   
$host = $url_parsed["host"];
   
$port = $url_parsed["port"];
    if (
$port==0)
       
$port = 80;
   
$path = $url_parsed["path"];
    if (
$url_parsed["query"] != "")
       
$path .= "?".$url_parsed["query"];

   
$out = "GET $path HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: $host\r\n\r\n";

   
$fp = fsockopen($host, $port, $errno, $errstr, 30);

   
fwrite($fp, $out);
   
$body = false;
    while (!
feof($fp)) {
       
$s = fgets($fp, 1024);
        if (
$body )
           
$in .= $s;
        if (
$s == "\r\n" )
           
$body = true;
    }
   
   
fclose($fp);
   
    return
$in;
}
?>

The following snippet allows you to retrieve the title of a page.

Great for rewriting auto-url detectors to display the actual title rather then http://...

<?php
echo get_url_title("http://www.php.net/cal.php?id=409");

function
get_url_title($url, $timeout = 2)
{
   
$url = parse_url($url);

    if(!
in_array($url['scheme'],array('','http')))
        return;

   
$fp = fsockopen ($url['host'], ($url['port'] > 0 ? $url['port'] : 80), $errno, $errstr, $timeout);
    if (!
$fp)
    {
        return;
       
// echo "$errstr ($errno)<br>\n";
   
}
    else
    {
       
fputs ($fp, "GET /".$url['path'].($url['query'] ? '?'.$url['query'] : '')." HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: ".$url['host']."\r\n\r\n");
       
$d = '';
        while (!
feof($fp))
        {
           
$d .= fgets ($fp,2048);

            if(
preg_match('~(</head>|<body>|(<title>\s*(.*?)\s*</title>))~i', $d, $m))
                break;
        }
       
fclose ($fp);

        return
$m[3];
    }
}
?>

I was tearing my hair out for a week trying to figure out how to do this.

If you use fsockopen with a service that doesn't have an EOF, or you try to read beyond EOF or line break, PHP can hang completely.

In my case, I was trying to write a class that talks to Kali servers (www.kali.net) to get a list of people on the chat server. To keep PHP from hanging due to the above, I discovered this:

<?php
   
class kali_utils {
        function
games_list($kali_server_ip, $kali_server_port) {
           
$result = array();
           
$fp = fsockopen($kali_server_ip, $kali_server_port, $errno, $error, 30);
            if (!
$fp) {
               
$result["errno"] = $errno;
               
$result["error"] = $error;
            }
            else {
               
fputs($fp, "KALIQ");
               
$header = fread($fp, 5);
               
$bytes_left = socket_get_status($fp);
                if (
$bytes_left > 0) {
                   
$result["results"] = fread($fp, $bytes_left["unread_bytes"]);
                }
                else {
                   
$result["results"] = "";
                }
               
fclose($fp);
            }
            return
$result;
        }
    }
?>

When I send the request packet, I get a response packet of length 5. Then I call socket_get_status() and use the unread_bytes key from it to know how far to fread from the socket. Works very good.

I've only used this on PHP 4.2.1 so far.

Rewrite/Update of king dot macro's DNS lookups function.
<?php

function gethostbyaddr_timeout( $ip, $dns, $timeout = 3 ) {
   
// src: http://www.askapache.com/php/php-fsockopen-dns-udp.html
   
    // random transaction number (for routers etc to get the reply back)
   
$data = rand( 10, 77 ) . "\1\0\0\1\0\0\0\0\0\0";
   
   
// octals in the array, keys are strlen of bit
   
$bitso = array("","\1","\2","\3" );
    foreach(
array_reverse( explode( '.', $ip ) ) as $bit ) {
       
$l=strlen($bit);
       
$data.="{$bitso[$l]}".$bit;
    }
   
   
// and the final bit of the request
   
$data .= "\7in-addr\4arpa\0\0\x0C\0\1";
       
   
// create UDP socket
   
$errno = $errstr = 0;
   
$fp = fsockopen( "udp://{$dns}", 53, $errno, $errstr, $timeout );
    if( !
$fp || ! is_resource( $fp ) )
        return
$errno;

    if(
function_exists( 'socket_set_timeout' ) ) {
       
socket_set_timeout( $fp, $timeout );
    } elseif (
function_exists( 'stream_set_timeout' ) ) {
       
stream_set_timeout( $fp, $timeout );
    }

   
// send our request (and store request size so we can cheat later)
   
$requestsize = fwrite( $fp, $data );
   
$max_rx = $requestsize * 3;
   
   
$start = time();
   
$responsesize = 0;
    while (
$rxed < $max_rx && ( ( time() - $start ) < $timeout ) && ($b = fread( $fp, 1 ) ) !== false ) {
       
$responsesize++;
       
$response .= $b;
    }
    echo
"[tx: $requestsize bytes]  [rx: {$responsesize} bytes]";

   
// hope we get a reply
   
if ( is_resource( $fp ) )
       
fclose( $fp );

   
// if empty response or bad response, return original ip
   
if ( empty( $response ) || bin2hex( substr( $response, $requestsize + 2, 2 ) ) != '000c' )
        return
$ip;
       
   
// set up our variables
   
$host = '';
   
$len = $loops = 0;
   
   
// set our pointer at the beginning of the hostname uses the request size from earlier rather than work it out
   
$pos = $requestsize + 12;
    do {
       
// get segment size
       
$len = unpack( 'c', substr( $response, $pos, 1 ) );
       
       
// null terminated string, so length 0 = finished - return the hostname, without the trailing .
       
if ( $len[1] == 0 )
            return
substr( $host, 0, -1 );
           
       
// add segment to our host
       
$host .= substr( $response, $pos + 1, $len[1] ) . '.';
       
       
// move pointer on to the next segment
       
$pos += $len[1] + 1;
       
       
// recursion protection
       
$loops++;
    }
    while (
$len[1] != 0 && $loops < 20 );
   
   
// return the ip in case
   
return $ip;
}

?>

My recursive unchunk function:

<?php
function unchunk($result)
         {return
preg_replace('/([0-9A-F]+)\r\n(.*)/sie',
                             
'($cnt=@base_convert("\1", 16, 10))
                               ?substr(($str=@strtr(\'\2\', array(\'\"\'=>\'"\', \'\\\\0\'=>"\x00"))), 0, $cnt).unchunk(substr($str, $cnt+2))
                               :""
                              '
,
                             
$result
                            
);
         }
?>

<?php
/*
this script i used for remote my PvPGN Server, to check email user.
not good, but it work.
*/

set_time_limit(0);
$host   = 'host';
$port   = 'port';
$user   = 'user';
$pass   = 'pass';
$socket = fsockopen($host, $port) or die('Could not connect to: '.$host);
$userdota = "palma";
if(
$socket)
{
   
sendcmd("\r",$socket);
   
$status = "open"; // set status open
       
   
while($status=="open") //while we are connected to the server
     
{    
            
$line = @fgets($socket, 1024) ;
             
/////////////login////////////////   
           
if (strstr($line, "there is no guest account"))
              {
                
sendcmd($user."\r\n",$socket);
                
sendcmd($pass."\r\n",$socket);
              }   
           
//////////////send command ////////////////////
           
if (strstr($line,"Your unique name: ".$user))
              { 
sendcmd("/finger ".$userdota."\r\n",$socket);
              }
           
           
//////////////get email////////////////////
           
if (strstr($line,"email:")) // if respone server write "email:"
             

                
$pattern = '/email:(.*) ,/';
                
preg_match($pattern, $line, $matches);
                
fclose($socket);
                
$status="close"; // status close
                
$matches=str_replace(" ","", $matches);
                
$matches=str_replace(",is_operator:0,is_admin:0,","", $matches);
                
$matches=str_replace("email:","", $matches);
                 print
$matches[0];                
                
$email=$matches[0];
              }
            if (
strstr($line,"ERROR: Invalid user.")) // if respone server write "ERROR: Invalid user."
             

                
                
fclose($socket);
                
$status="close";
                
$error ="Invalid User";    // error message
             
}
           
           
////////////login failed //////////////////////////            
           
if (strstr($line, "Login failed")) // if respone server write "Login failed"
             
{
                
$error = "Login Failed";    // error message
                
fclose($socket);
                
$status="close";
              }
           
           
flush(); // close
     
     
}
         
}
function
sendcmd($cmd,$socket) // send command function
{
 
fputs($socket, $cmd, strlen($cmd));
}
?>

When downloading large files, it is not really efficient to put the whole server answer in memory before parsing the data to remove the header parts. Here is a simple way to do it while writing the data as it arrive:

<?php

// $socket is a valid fsockopen handle

$out = '';
$headerendfound = false;
$fp = fopen($fileTarget, 'w');
$buffer = '';
while (!
feof($socket)) {
   
$out = fgets ($socket,16384);
    if (
$headerendfound) {
       
fwrite($fp, $out);
        print
'.';
    }
    if (!
$headerendfound) {
       
$buffer .= $out;
        print
"searching for header\n";
       
$headerend = strpos($buffer, "\r\n\r\n");
        if (
$headerend !== false) {
           
$headerendfound = true;
           
fwrite($fp, substr($buffer, $headerend+4));
           
$buffer = '';
        }
    }
}
fclose($fp);
fclose($socket);

?>

[NOTE BY danbrown AT php DOT net: Updated version.  Contains author-submitted bug fixes.]

Here is a way to get an array of cities / states for any zip code anywhere in the US.  This example uses a $_GET variable to specify which zip code, but you can get it from any source you wish.  This will return actual and acceptable zip code cities (according to USPS), but can be easily modified to include just the actual city.

<?php

if($_GET['zip'])
{
    if(!(
$fp = fsockopen('zip4.usps.com', 80, $errno, $errstr)))
        echo
'Could not connect to USPS! Error number: ' . $errno . '(' . $errstr . ')';

    else
    {
       
$poststring =

           
"GET /zip4/zcl_3_results.jsp?zip5=" . $_GET['zip'] . " HTTP/1.0\r\n" .
           
"Connection: close\r\n\r\n";

       
fputs($fp, $poststring);

       
$buffer = '';

        while(!
feof($fp))
           
$buffer .= fgets($fp, 128);

       
fclose($fp);

       
preg_match('/Actual City name(.*)/s', $buffer, $match);

       
$temp = explode('Not Acceptable', $match[1]);

       
// Capture city/state combination for all valid cities

       
preg_match_all('/headers="pre">(?:<b>)?([\w|\s]+), (\w+)/', $temp[0], $acceptable, PREG_SET_ORDER);

       
$values = array();

        foreach(
$acceptable as $value)

           
$values[] =

                array
                (
                   
'city' => $value[1],
                   
'state' => $value[2]
                );

        if(
count($values) == 0)
            echo
'Zip could not be found in the database!';
    }
}
else
    echo
'Please specify a zip!';

?>

Notice using "tcp" insted of "http"
<?php
fsockopen
("tcp://example.net",80 , $errno, $errstr, 30);
?>

My $0.02 on handling chunked transfer encoded output...  Has rudimentary error handling.

<?php
//
// Example usage...
//
$server  = '127.0.0.1';
$port    = '80';
$uri     = '/cgi-bin/random-cgi';
$content = 'Your post content...';

$post_results = httpPost($server,$port,$uri,$content);
if (!
is_string($post_results)) {
    die(
'uh oh, something went wrong');
    } else {
    die(
'Here are your results: ' . $post_results);
    }

//
// Post provided content to an http server and optionally
// convert chunk encoded results.  Returns false on errors,
// result of post on success.  This example only handles http,
// not https.
//
function httpPost($ip=null,$port=80,$uri=null,$content=null) {
    if (empty(
$ip))         { return false; }
    if (!
is_numeric($port)) { return false; }
    if (empty(
$uri))        { return false; }
    if (empty(
$content))    { return false; }
   
// generate headers in array.
   
$t   = array();
   
$t[] = 'POST ' . $uri . ' HTTP/1.1';
   
$t[] = 'Content-Type: text/html';
   
$t[] = 'Host: ' . $ip . ':' . $port;
   
$t[] = 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($content);
   
$t[] = 'Connection: close';
   
$t   = implode("\r\n",$t) . "\r\n\r\n" . $content;
   
//
    // Open socket, provide error report vars and timeout of 10
    // seconds.
    //
   
$fp  = @fsockopen($ip,$port,$errno,$errstr,10);
   
// If we don't have a stream resource, abort.
   
if (!(get_resource_type($fp) == 'stream')) { return false; }
   
//
    // Send headers and content.
    //
   
if (!fwrite($fp,$t)) {
       
fclose($fp);
        return
false;
        }
   
//
    // Read all of response into $rsp and close the socket.
    //
   
$rsp = '';
    while(!
feof($fp)) { $rsp .= fgets($fp,8192); }
   
fclose($fp);
   
//
    // Call parseHttpResponse() to return the results.
    //
   
return parseHttpResponse($rsp);
    }

//
// Accepts provided http content, checks for a valid http response,
// unchunks if needed, returns http content without headers on
// success, false on any errors.
//
function parseHttpResponse($content=null) {
    if (empty(
$content)) { return false; }
   
// split into array, headers and content.
   
$hunks = explode("\r\n\r\n",trim($content));
    if (!
is_array($hunks) or count($hunks) < 2) {
        return
false;
        }
   
$header  = $hunks[count($hunks) - 2];
   
$body    = $hunks[count($hunks) - 1];
   
$headers = explode("\n",$header);
    unset(
$hunks);
    unset(
$header);
    if (!
verifyHttpResponse($headers)) { return false; }
    if (
in_array('Transfer-Encoding: chunked',$headers)) {
        return
trim(unchunkHttpResponse($body));
        } else {
        return
trim($body);
        }
    }

//
// Validate http responses by checking header.  Expects array of
// headers as argument.  Returns boolean.
//
function validateHttpResponse($headers=null) {
    if (!
is_array($headers) or count($headers) < 1) { return false; }
    switch(
trim(strtolower($headers[0]))) {
        case
'http/1.0 100 ok':
        case
'http/1.0 200 ok':
        case
'http/1.1 100 ok':
        case
'http/1.1 200 ok':
            return
true;
        break;
        }
    return
false;
    }

//
// Unchunk http content.  Returns unchunked content on success,
// false on any errors...  Borrows from code posted above by
// jbr at ya-right dot com.
//
function unchunkHttpResponse($str=null) {
    if (!
is_string($str) or strlen($str) < 1) { return false; }
   
$eol = "\r\n";
   
$add = strlen($eol);
   
$tmp = $str;
   
$str = '';
    do {
       
$tmp = ltrim($tmp);
       
$pos = strpos($tmp, $eol);
        if (
$pos === false) { return false; }
       
$len = hexdec(substr($tmp,0,$pos));
        if (!
is_numeric($len) or $len < 0) { return false; }
       
$str .= substr($tmp, ($pos + $add), $len);
       
$tmp  = substr($tmp, ($len + $pos + $add));
       
$check = trim($tmp);
        } while(!empty(
$check));
    unset(
$tmp);
    return
$str;
    }

?>

<?php
// Check for new version
   
$current_version = explode('.', '1.0.00');
   
$minor_revision = (int) $current_version[2];

   
$errno = 0;
   
$errstr = $version_info = '';

    if (
$fsock = fsockopen("www.exanmple.eu", 80, $errno, $errstr, 30))
    {
        @
fputs($fsock, "GET /ver.txt HTTP/1.1\r\n");
        @
fputs($fsock, "HOST: www.example.eu\r\n");
        @
fputs($fsock, "Connection: close\r\n\r\n");

       
$get_info = false;
        while (!@
feof($fsock))
        {
            if (
$get_info)
            {
               
$version_info .= @fread($fsock, 1024);
            }
            else
            {
                if (@
fgets($fsock, 1024) == "\r\n")
                {
                   
$get_info = true;
                }
            }
        }
        @
fclose($fsock);

       
$version_info = explode("\n", $version_info);
       
$latest_head_revision = (int) $version_info[0];
       
$latest_minor_revision = (int) $version_info[2];
       
$latest_version = (int) $version_info[0] . '.' . (int) $version_info[1] . '.' . (int) $version_info[2];

        if (
$latest_head_revision == 2 && $minor_revision == $latest_minor_revision)
        {
           
$version_info = '<p style="color:green">OK</p>';
        }
        else
        {
           
$version_info = '<p style="color:red">neaktualne';
           
$version_info .= '<br />'Latest_version_info' . $latest_version) . ' ' . sprintf(Current_version_info'. '1.0.00') . '</p>';
        }
    }
    else
    {
        if (
$errstr)
        {
           
$version_info = '<p style="color:red">' . sprintf(Connect_socket_error) . '</p>';
        }
        else
        {
           
$version_info = '<p>'Socket_functions_disabled'</p>';
        }
    }
   
   
$version_info .= '<p>'Mailing_list_subscribe_reminder'</p>';

echo
$version_info;
?>

For those of you who do not have cURL, you might want to try this.
It doesn't have all the functions that cURL has, but it has the basics.
Please let me know of any bugs or problems.

<?php
function open_page($url,$f=1,$c=2,$r=0,$a=0,$cf=0,$pd=""){
global
$oldheader;
$url = str_replace("http://","",$url);
if (
preg_match("#/#","$url")){
 
$page = $url;
 
$url = @explode("/",$url);
 
$url = $url[0];
 
$page = str_replace($url,"",$page);
  if (!
$page || $page == ""){
  
$page = "/";
  }
 
$ip = gethostbyname($url);
}else{
 
$ip = gethostbyname($url);
 
$page = "/";
}
$open = fsockopen($ip, 80, $errno, $errstr, 60);
if (
$pd){
 
$send = "POST $page HTTP/1.0\r\n";
}else{
 
$send = "GET $page HTTP/1.0\r\n";
}
$send .= "Host: $url\r\n";
if (
$r){
 
$send .= "Referer: $r\r\n";
}else{
  if (
$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']){
  
$send .= "Referer: {$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']}\r\n";
  }
}
if (
$cf){
  if (@
file_exists($cf)){
  
$cookie = urldecode(@file_get_contents($cf));
   if (
$cookie){
   
$send .= "Cookie: $cookie\r\n";
   
$add = @fopen($cf,'w');
   
fwrite($add,"");
   
fclose($add);
   }
  }
}
$send .= "Accept-Language: en-us, en;q=0.50\r\n";
if (
$a){
 
$send .= "User-Agent: $a\r\n";
}else{
 
$send .= "User-Agent: {$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']}\r\n";
}
if (
$pd){
 
$send .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n"
 
$send .= "Content-Length: " .strlen($pd) ."\r\n\r\n";
 
$send .= $pd;
}else{
 
$send .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
}
fputs($open, $send);
while (!
feof($open)) {
 
$return .= fgets($open, 4096);
}
fclose($open);
$return = @explode("\r\n\r\n",$return,2);
$header = $return[0];
if (
$cf){
  if (
preg_match("/Set\-Cookie\: /i","$header")){
  
$cookie = @explode("Set-Cookie: ",$header,2);
  
$cookie = $cookie[1];
  
$cookie = explode("\r",$cookie);
  
$cookie = $cookie[0];
  
$cookie = str_replace("path=/","",$cookie[0]);
  
$add = @fopen($cf,'a');
  
fwrite($add,$cookie,strlen($read));
  
fclose($add);
  }
}
if (
$oldheader){
 
$header = "$oldheader<br /><br />\n$header";
}
$header = str_replace("\n","<br />",$header);
if (
$return[1]){
 
$body = $return[1];
}else{
 
$body = "";
}
if (
$c === 2){
  if (
$body){
  
$return = $body;
  }else{
  
$return = $header;
  }
}
if (
$c === 1){
 
$return = $header;
}
if (
$c === 3){
 
$return = "$header$body";
}
if (
$f){
  if (
preg_match("/Location\:/","$header")){
  
$url = @explode("Location: ",$header);
  
$url = $url[1];
  
$url = @explode("\r",$url);
  
$url = $url[0];
  
$oldheader = str_replace("\r\n\r\n","",$header);
  
$l = "&#76&#111&#99&#97&#116&#105&#111&#110&#58";
  
$oldheader = str_replace("Location:",$l,$oldheader);
   return
open_page($url,$f,$c,$r,$a,$cf,$pd);
  }else{
   return
$return;
  }
}else{
  return
$return;
}
}
/////////////
////Usage////
/////////////
$url = "http://www.php.net";
$f = 1;
$c = 2;//1 for header, 2 for body, 3 for both
$r = NULL;
$a = NULL;
$cf = NULL;
$pd = NULL;
$page = open_page($url,$f,$c,$r,$a,$cf,$pd);
print
$page;
?>

I've had issues with some of the handlers for chunked http 1.1 responses.  Here's a method that worked for me, if it works for you as well, then cheers :P

<?php

   
function httpSocketConnection($host, $method, $path, $data)
    {
       
$method = strtoupper($method);       
       
        if (
$method == "GET")
        {
           
$path.= '?'.$data;
        }   
       
       
$filePointer = fsockopen($host, 80, $errorNumber, $errorString);
       
        if (!
$filePointer)
        {
           
logEvent('debug', 'Failed opening http socket connection: '.$errorString.' ('.$errorNumber.')<br/>\n');
            return
false;
        }

       
$requestHeader = $method." ".$path."  HTTP/1.1\r\n";
       
$requestHeader.= "Host: ".$host."\r\n";
       
$requestHeader.= "User-Agent:      Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0\r\n";
       
$requestHeader.= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";

        if (
$method == "POST")
        {
           
$requestHeader.= "Content-Length: ".strlen($data)."\r\n";
        }
       
       
$requestHeader.= "Connection: close\r\n\r\n";
       
        if (
$method == "POST")
        {
           
$requestHeader.= $data;
        }           

       
fwrite($filePointer, $requestHeader);
       
       
$responseHeader = '';
       
$responseContent = '';

        do
        {
           
$responseHeader.= fread($filePointer, 1);
        }
        while (!
preg_match('/\\r\\n\\r\\n$/', $responseHeader));
       
       
        if (!
strstr($responseHeader, "Transfer-Encoding: chunked"))
        {
            while (!
feof($filePointer))
            {
               
$responseContent.= fgets($filePointer, 128);
            }
        }
        else
        {

            while (
$chunk_length = hexdec(fgets($filePointer)))
            {
               
$responseContentChunk = '';
           
               
logEventToTextFile('debug', $chunk_length);
               
$read_length = 0;
               
                while (
$read_length < $chunk_length)
                {
                   
$responseContentChunk .= fread($filePointer, $chunk_length - $read_length);
                   
$read_length = strlen($responseContentChunk);
                }

               
$responseContent.= $responseContentChunk;
               
               
fgets($filePointer);
               
            }
           
        }

       
logEventToTextFile('debug', $responseContent);
       
       
        return
chop($responseContent);
    }

?>

Lots of tries and lots of reading http-headers...

If you want to post $_POST vars and (in this case) one file named userfile to $remote_server and $remote_url.

<?php
       
// get the necessary data
       
$file_name = $_FILES['userfile']['name'];     // the file
       
$tmp_name = $_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'];     // the file
       
$content_type = $_FILES['userfile']['type'];     // the file mime type
       
       
srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
       
$boundary = "---------------------".substr(md5(rand(0,32000)),0,10);
       
       
// Build the header
       
$header = "POST $remote_url HTTP/1.0\r\n";
       
$header .= "Host: $remote_server\r\n";
       
$header .= "Content-type: multipart/form-data, boundary=$boundary\r\n";
       
// attach post vars
       
foreach($_POST AS $index => $value){
           
$data .="--$boundary\r\n";
           
$data .= "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"".$index."\"\r\n";
           
$data .= "\r\n".$value."\r\n";
           
$data .="--$boundary\r\n";
        }
       
// and attach the file
       
$data .= "--$boundary\r\n";
       
$content_file = join("", file($tmp_name));
       
$data .="Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"userfile\"; filename=\"$file_name\"\r\n";
       
$data .= "Content-Type: $content_type\r\n\r\n";
       
$data .= "".$content_file."\r\n";
       
$data .="--$boundary--\r\n";
       
$header .= "Content-length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n\r\n";
                
// Open the connection
       
$fp = fsockopen($remote_server, 80);
       
// then just
       
fputs($fp, $header.$data);
       
fclose($fp);
?>

login to the site prior to downloading page:

In some wierd situations site security is based on
ASPSESSION ID and where could be a
login asp  script in one place, and the actual page with
information in another place.

for such cases you have to submit ( POST ) you login and
password first, when grab ASP session (and also some
cookies from response, and when use that ASP SESSION in
second request to the actual page: (i took some parts of
codes from other ppl)
<?php
//submit login form: (url, post data, extra headers (optional))
//do not put  http into URL, just domain name
$mycookies = GetCookies("www.yourdomain.com/login.login.asp",
"password=12345&username=your_username&submit=LOGIN&set=Y","");
//some extra params if you need them
// echo "Cookies:<br><pre>\n".$mycookies."\n</pre>";
//$body =PostPage("www.example.com/coolpage.asp",
//"action=zzz",$mycookies);
//echo "<br>Body:<br>\n".$body."\n";
//im using get page - so it goes like this:
$opts = array('http'=>array('method'=>"GET",
'header'=>"Accept-language: en\r\nCookie: ".$mycookies."\r\n" ));
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$fp = fopen('http://www.example.com/coolpage.asp?p1=1&p2=23', 'r', false, $context);
fpassthru($fp);
$html = fread($fp, 1000000);
fclose($fp);
echo
$html;

function
PostPage($host,$query,$others=''){
  
$path=explode('/',$host);
  
$host=$path[0];
   unset(
$path[0]);
  
$path='/'.(implode('/',$path));
$post="POST $path HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: $host\r\n";
$post.="Content-type: application/x-www-form-";
$post.="urlencoded\r\n${others}";
$post.="User-Agent: Mozilla 4.0\r\nContent-length: ";
$post.=strlen($query)."\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n$query";
  
$h=fsockopen($host,80);
  
fwrite($h,$post);
   for(
$a=0,$r='';!$a;){
      
$b=fread($h,8192);
      
$r.=$b;
      
$a=(($b=='')?1:0);
   }
  
fclose($h);
   return
$r;
}
function
GetCookies($host,$query,$others=''){
  
$path=explode('/',$host);
  
$host=$path[0];
   unset(
$path[0]);
  
$crlf = "\r\n";
  
$path='/'.(implode('/',$path));
  
$post="POST $path HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: $host\r\n";
$post.="Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n${others}";
$post.="User-Agent: Mozilla 4.0\r\nContent-length: ";
$post.=strlen($query)."\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n$query";
  
$h=fsockopen($host,80);
  
fwrite($h,$post);
  
$r="";
   for(
$a=0;!$a;){
      
$b=fread($h,512);
       echo
$b;
      
$r.=$b;
      
$gotSession=strpos($r,"ASPSESSION");
   if(
$gotSession)
      if(
strpos($r, $crlf . $crlf,$gotSession)>0) break;
      
$a=(($b=='')?1:0);
   }
  
fclose($h);
  
$arr = split("Set-Cookie:",$r);
  
$AllCookies="";$count=1;
   while (
$count < count($arr)) {
$AllCookies.=substr($arr[$count].";",
0,strpos($arr[$count].";",";")+1);

$count++;}
   return
$AllCookies;

}
?>

It's not optimized , but i hope someone might find it usefull.
Best Regards
DRY_GIN

This is an ident request example. If your client is running identd your real username will be known by the server.
It is also usefull to identify people bypassing IP ACLs by using SOCKS proxy and dynamic IP forwarding. If the socks proxy server uses ident (most unices do) you will know his real username.
For more information see RFC1413
Timeout of 2 seconds in the example may not be enough.

<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL);
$remip = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$remport = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['REMOTE_PORT'];

ob_implicit_flush();
$fp = fsockopen($remip, 113, $errno, $errstr, 2);
if (!
$fp) {
   echo
"$errstr ($errno)<br>\n";
   exit;
}
else {
  
$out = "$remport, 80\r\n";
  
fwrite($fp, $out);
  
$answer=fgets($fp, 128);
}
fclose($fp);
$ansparts=explode(":",$answer);
$user=chop($ansparts[3]);
echo
"You are $user@$remip:$remport";

?>

Additional ICQ status request over proxy
<?php
function icq_uin($uin)
{
    if (!
is_numeric($uin))
        return
false;
   
$proxy_name = 'proxy.mydomain.de';
   
$proxy_port = 8080;
   
$proxy_user = "";
   
$proxy_pass = "";
   
$proxy_cont = '';
   
$request_url = "http://status.icq.com/online.gif?icq=$uin";

   
$proxy_fp = fsockopen($proxy_name, $proxy_port);
    if (!
$proxy_fp)
        return
false;
   
fputs($proxy_fp, "GET $request_url HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: $proxy_name\r\n");
   
fputs($proxy_fp, "Proxy-Authorization: Basic ". base64_encode ("$proxy_user:$proxy_pass")."\r\n\r\n");
    while(!
feof($proxy_fp)){
       
$proxy_cont .= fread($proxy_fp,4096);
    }
   
fclose($proxy_fp);
   
$proxy_cont = substr($proxy_cont, strpos($proxy_cont,"\r\n\r\n")+4);
    if (
strstr($proxy_cont, 'online1'))
        return
'online';
    if (
strstr($proxy_cont, 'online0'))
        return
'offline';
    if (
strstr($proxy_cont, 'online2'))
        return
'disabled';
}
echo
"User is ".icq_uin(123456789012345);
?>

Thanx

[EDIT BY danbrown AT php DOT net: Based on code provided in a note by (rafaelbc AT matrix DOT com DOT br) on 23-MAY-09, which has since been removed.]

Something useful for ICQ:
<?php
$icquin
= "197829943";
function
GetICQ($uin) {
    if (!
is_numeric($uin)) return FALSE;

   
$fp = fsockopen('status.icq.com', 80, $errno, $errstr, 8);
    if (!
$fp) {
    return
"N/A";
        }
    else {

   
$request = "HEAD /online.gif?icq=$uin HTTP/1.0\r\n"
             
."Host: web.icq.com\r\n"
             
."Connection: close\r\n\r\n";
   
fputs($fp, $request);

    do {
       
$response = fgets($fp, 1024);
    }
    while (!
feof($fp) && !stristr($response, 'Location'));

   
fclose($fp);

    if (
strstr($response, 'online1')) return 'Online';
    if (
strstr($response, 'online0')) return 'Offline';
    if (
strstr($response, 'online2')) return 'N/A';
   
// N/A means, this User set the Option, his Online
    // Status cannot be shown over the Internet
   
   
return FALSE;
    }
}

echo
GetICQ($icquin);
?>

The following script will login to a POP3 account using the username, password and server name provided via a standard form; determine the amount of messages using a binary search; then purge all messages.

<?php
    $server
= $_POST["server"];
   
$user = $_POST["user"];
   
$pass = $_POST["pass"];
   
$count = 1;
   
$low = 0;
   
$mid = 0;
   
$high = 100000;
   
$connection = fsockopen($server, 110, $errno, $errstr, 30);

    if(!
$connection) {
        print
"Connect Failed: $errstr ($errno)";
    } else {
       
$output = fgets($connection, 128);
       
fputs($connection, "user $user\n");
       
$output = fgets($connection, 128);
       
fputs($connection, "pass $pass\n");
       
$output = fgets($connection, 128);
        while(
$low < $high - 1) {
           
$mid = floor(($low + $high) / 2);
           
fputs($connection, "list $mid\n");
           
$output = fgets($connection, 128);
           
$subout = substr($output, 0, 4);
            if(
$subout == "+OK ") {
               
$low = $mid;
                continue;
            }
            elseif(
$subout == "-ERR") {
                   
$high = $mid;
                    continue;
            } else {
                break;
                print
"An error has occurred. Please try again.";
            }
        }
       
$limit = $mid - 1;
        while(
$count <= $limit) {
           
fputs($connection, "dele $count\n");
           
fgets($connection, 128);
           
$count = $count + 1;
        }
       
fputs($connection, "quit\n");
    }
   
fclose($connection);
    print
"Successfully removed $limit messages.";
?>

Here's a function that I needed and couldn't use CURL... it helps you if you want to send the POST data (instead of GET) from one form to 2 or more other PHP scripts.  Trust me... it's a life saver!!

<?php
     
function HTTP_Post($URL,$data, $referrer="") {

       
// parsing the given URL
       
$URL_Info=parse_url($URL);

       
// Building referrer
       
if($referrer=="") // if not given use this script as referrer
         
$referrer=$_SERVER["SCRIPT_URI"];

       
// making string from $data
       
foreach($data as $key=>$value)
         
$values[]="$key=".urlencode($value);
       
$data_string=implode("&",$values);

       
// Find out which port is needed - if not given use standard (=80)
       
if(!isset($URL_Info["port"]))
         
$URL_Info["port"]=80;

       
// building POST-request:
       
$request.="POST ".$URL_Info["path"]." HTTP/1.1\n";
       
$request.="Host: ".$URL_Info["host"]."\n";
       
$request.="Referer: $referer\n";
       
$request.="Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\n";
       
$request.="Content-length: ".strlen($data_string)."\n";
       
$request.="Connection: close\n";
       
$request.="\n";
       
$request.=$data_string."\n";

       
$fp = fsockopen($URL_Info["host"],$URL_Info["port"]);
       
fputs($fp, $request);
        while(!
feof($fp)) {
           
$result .= fgets($fp, 128);
        }
       
fclose($fp);

        return
$result;
      }

     
$output1=HTTP_Post("http://www.example.com/script1.php",$_POST);
     
$output2=HTTP_Post("http://www.example.net/script2.php",$_POST);
?>

The documentation example is of a GET request. I have found POST documentation to be lacking, and here's a function to easily simulate submitting form data:

<?php
# $host includes host and path and filename
    # ex: "myserver.com/this/is/path/to/file.php"
# $query is the POST query data
    # ex: "a=thisstring&number=46&string=thatstring
# $others is any extra headers you want to send
    # ex: "Accept-Encoding: compress, gzip\r\n"
function post($host,$query,$others=''){
   
$path=explode('/',$host);
   
$host=$path[0];
    unset(
$path[0]);
   
$path='/'.(implode('/',$path));
   
$post="POST $path HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: $host\r\nContent-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n${others}User-Agent: Mozilla 4.0\r\nContent-length: ".strlen($query)."\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n$query";
   
$h=fsockopen($host,80);
   
fwrite($h,$post);
    for(
$a=0,$r='';!$a;){
       
$b=fread($h,8192);
       
$r.=$b;
       
$a=(($b=='')?1:0);
    }
   
fclose($h);
    return
$r;
}
?>

Set up SSL connection to server that requires client certificate:

Convert client certificate from *.pfx (pkcs12) into*.pem with openssl (if needed):

> openssl pkcs12 -in keys.pfx -out keys.pem

PHP:

<?php
$context
= stream_context_create();
$result = stream_context_set_option($context, 'ssl', 'local_cert', '/path/to/keys.pem');
$result = stream_context_set_option($context, 'ssl', 'passphrase', 'pass_to_access_keys');

$socket = fsockopen('ssl://'.$host, 443, $errno, $errstr, 30, $context);
?>

Here is a function for testing a website/URI for availability:

<?php
   
/*
    * @return boolean
    * @param  string $link
    * @desc   Überprüft die angegeben URL auf Erreichbarkeit (HTTP-Code: 200)
    */
   
function url_validate( $link )
    {       
       
$url_parts = @parse_url( $link );

        if ( empty(
$url_parts["host"] ) ) return( false );

        if ( !empty(
$url_parts["path"] ) )
        {
           
$documentpath = $url_parts["path"];
        }
        else
        {
           
$documentpath = "/";
        }

        if ( !empty(
$url_parts["query"] ) )
        {
           
$documentpath .= "?" . $url_parts["query"];
        }

       
$host = $url_parts["host"];
       
$port = $url_parts["port"];
       
// Now (HTTP-)GET $documentpath at $host";

       
if (empty( $port ) ) $port = "80";
       
$socket = @fsockopen( $host, $port, $errno, $errstr, 30 );
        if (!
$socket)
        {
            return(
false);
        }
        else
        {
           
fwrite ($socket, "HEAD ".$documentpath." HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: $host\r\n\r\n");
           
$http_response = fgets( $socket, 22 );
           
            if (
ereg("200 OK", $http_response, $regs ) )
            {
                return(
true);
               
fclose( $socket );
            } else
            {
//                echo "HTTP-Response: $http_response<br>";
               
return(false);
            }
        }
    }
?>

Try this.
Use AUTH when necessary.
Read RFC 821 when having problems.

<?php

    $handle
= smtp_connect($smtp_server, 25, 30, 1, 1, 1);
    echo
smtp_command($handle, "EHLO $domain\r\n", 1, 1);
    echo
smtp_command($handle, "MAIL FROM:<$from_mail>\r\n", 1, 1);
    echo
smtp_command($handle, "RCPT TO:<$to_mail>\r\n", 1, 1);
    echo
smtp_command($handle, "DATA\r\n", 1, 1);
    echo
smtp_command($handle, "$message\r\n.\r\n", 1, 1);
   
// don't do it like this - it will hang up
    // echo smtp_command($handle, "$message", 1, 1);
    // echo smtp_command($handle, "\r\n.\r\n", 1, 1);
   
echo smtp_command($handle, "QUIT\r\n", 1, 1);
   
smtp_close($handle);
   
   
    function
smtp_connect($host, $port, $timeout=30, $echo_command=False, $echo_response=False, $nl2br=False)
    {
       
$errno = 0;
       
$errstr = 0;
        if(
$echo_command)
        {
            if(
$nl2br) { echo nl2br("CONNECTING TO $host\r\n"); }
            else { echo
"CONNECTING TO $host\r\n"; }
        }
       
$handle = fsockopen($host, $port, $errno, $errstr, $timeout);
        if(!
$handle)
        {
            if(
$echo_command)
            {
                if(
$nl2br) { echo nl2br("CONNECTION FAILED\r\n"); }
                else { echo
"CONNECTION FAILED\r\n"; }
            }
            return
False;
        }
        if(
$echo_command)
        {
            if(
$nl2br) { echo nl2br("SUCCESS\r\n"); }
            else { echo
"SUCCESS\r\n"; }
        }
       
$response = fgets($handle,1);
       
$bytes_left = socket_get_status($handle);
        if (
$bytes_left > 0) { $response .= fread($handle, $bytes_left["unread_bytes"]); }
        if(
$echo_response)
        {
            if(
$nl2br) { echo nl2br($response); }
            else { echo
$response; }
        }
        return
$handle;
    }

    function
smtp_command($handle, $command, $echo_command=False, $nl2br=False)
    {
        if(
$echo_command)
        {
            if(
$nl2br) { echo nl2br($command); }
            else { echo
$command; }
        }
       
fputs($handle, $command);
       
$response = fgets($handle,1);
       
$bytes_left = socket_get_status($handle);
        if (
$bytes_left > 0) { $response .= fread($handle, $bytes_left["unread_bytes"]); }
        if(
$nl2br) { return nl2br($response); }
        else { return
$response; }
    }
   
    function
smtp_close($handle)
    {
       
fclose($handle);
    }
?>

If you want to connect via Telnet, it could be useful to set also the Terminal Type (some OS requires it)

<?php
$IAC 
= chr(255);   /* interpret as command: */
$SB = chr(250);     /* interpret as subnegotiation */
$SE = chr(240);     /* end sub negotiation */
$TELOPT_TTYPE = chr(24);     /* terminal type */
$TELQUAL_IS = chr(0);    /* Option is... */

//sending Terminal Type
fwrite($sock,$IAC.$SB.$TELOPT_TTYPE.$TELQUAL_IS.'vt100'.$IAC.$SE);
?>

ciao
Sergio Paternoster

Here's a quick function to establish a connection to a web server that will time out if the connection is lost after a user definable amount of time or if the server can't be reached.

Also supports Basic authentication if a username/password is specified. Any improvements or criticisms, please email me! :-)

Returns either a resource ID, an error code or 0 if the server can't be reached at all. Returns -1 in the event that something really wierd happens like a non-standard http response or something. Hope it helps someone.

Cheers,

Ben Blazely

<?php
function connectToURL($addr, $port, $path, $user="", $pass="", $timeout="30")
{
$urlHandle = fsockopen($addr, $port, $errno, $errstr, $timeout);
if (
$urlHandle)
{
 
socket_set_timeout($urlHandle, $timeout);
  if (
$path)
  {
  
$urlString = "GET $path HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: $addr\r\nConnection: Keep-Alive\r\nUser-Agent: MyURLGrabber\r\n";
   if (
$user)
   
$urlString .= "Authorization: Basic ".base64_encode("$user:$pass")."\r\n";
   
$urlString .= "\r\n";

   
fputs($urlHandle, $urlString);

   
$response = fgets($urlHandle);

    if (
substr_count($response, "200 OK") > 0)      // Check the status of the link
   
{
    
$endHeader = false;                     // Strip initial header information
    
while ( !$endHeader)
     {
      if (
fgets($urlHandle) == "\r\n")
      
$endHeader = true;
     }

     return
$urlHandle;                      // All OK, return the file handle
   
}
    else if (
strlen($response) < 15)                // Cope with wierd non standard responses
   
{
    
fclose($urlHandle);
     return -
1;
    }
    else                                           
// Cope with a standard error response
   
{
    
fclose($urlHandle);
     return
substr($response,9,3);
    }
   }

   return
$urlHandle;
  }
  else
  {
   return
0;
  }
}
}
?>

Here is how to connect to the web from behind a proxy server:

<?php
/*************start code**************/
/*your proxy server address*/
$proxy = "192.168.10.1";
/*your proxy server port*/
$port = 8080;
/*the url you want to connect to*/
$url = "http://www.php.net/";
$fp = fsockopen($proxy, $port);
fputs($fp, "GET $url HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: $proxy\r\n\r\n");
while(!
feof($fp)){
 
$line = fgets($fp, 4000);
  print(
$line);
}
fclose($fp);
/**************end code**************/
?>