Example code copy/pasted from http://www.php.net/manual/en/html/ref.sockets.html :

<?php
error_reporting (E_ALL);

echo "<h2>TCP/IP Connection</h2>\n";

/* Get the port for the WWW service. */
$service_port = getservbyname ('www', 'tcp');

/* Get the IP address for the target host. */
$address = gethostbyname ('www.php.net');

/* Create a TCP/IP socket. */
$socket = socket_create (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
if ($socket < 0) {
    echo "socket_create() failed: reason: " . socket_strerror ($socket) . "\n";
} else {
    "socket_create() successful: " . socket_strerror ($socket) . "\n";
}

echo "Attempting to connect to '$address' on port '$service_port'...";
$result = socket_connect ($socket, $address, $service_port);
if ($result < 0) {
    echo "socket_connect() failed.\nReason: ($result) " . socket_strerror($result) . "\n";
} else {
    echo "OK.\n";
}

$in = "HEAD / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n";
$out = '';

echo "Sending HTTP HEAD request...";
socket_write ($socket, $in, strlen ($in));
echo "OK.\n";

echo "Reading response:\n\n";
while (socket_read ($socket, $out, 2048)) {
    echo $out;
}

echo "Closing socket...";
socket_close ($socket);
echo "OK.\n\n";
?>


When run :

<h2>TCP/IP Connection</h2>
<br>
<b>Warning</b>:  socket_strerror() expects parameter 1 to be long, resource given in <b>/usr/home/aragon/squeakbot/test2</b> on line <b>18</b><br>
Attempting to connect to '209.61.157.217' on port '80'...OK.
Sending HTTP HEAD request...OK.
Reading response:

<br>
<b>Warning</b>:  socket_read() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in <b>/usr/home/aragon/squeakbot/test2</b> on line <b>38</b><br>
Closing socket...OK.


Regards,
Aragon