Check for an internet connection using php

In writing a recent distributed db application (using AMP) I needed to find a way to check if the local machine had access to the internet, to be able to update the db at the master site. So I wrote this.

It uses fsockopen() to open a connection to a remote website, substitute yours in, and looks on ports 80 for http connections or 443 for SSL connections.

When called the function returns true id connected or false if not.




//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// is_connected function to check for internet connection 
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?php function is_connected() 
{ 
    //check to see if the local machine is connected to the web 
    //uses sockets to open a connection to apisonline.com 
    $connected = @fsockopen("www.some_domain.com", [80|443]); 
    if ($connected){ 
        $is_conn = true; 
        fclose($connected); 
    }else{ 
        $is_conn = false; 
    } 
    return $is_conn; 
    
}//end is_connected function ?>