PHP Functions Essential Reference

pfsockopen

mixed pfsockopen(string host, int port, [reference error_number], 
 [reference error_string], [double timeout]) 

host	Hostname or IP address
port	Port number
error_number	Reference to a variable that will store the system-level error number if the function fails
error_string	Reference to a variable that will store the system-level error message if the function fails
timeout	Number of seconds before the connect system call times out

Opens a persistent connection to a socket.

Returns:

File pointer identifying the open socket; FALSE on failure

Description:

pfsockopen() attempts to open a persistent connection to a network socket on the specified host and port. This function differs from fsockopen() only in that the connection is ...