Are there any best practices for handling IP addresses instead of hostnames when checking for the existence of files on remote servers in PHP?

When checking for the existence of files on remote servers in PHP, it is generally recommended to use IP addresses instead of hostnames to avoid potential DNS resolution issues. This ensures a more direct and reliable connection to the remote server. To implement this, you can simply replace the hostname with the corresponding IP address in your file checking code.

$ip = '123.456.789.012'; // Replace with the IP address of the remote server
$filePath = '/path/to/file.txt'; // Specify the file path on the remote server

if (file_exists("ssh2.sftp://$ip$filePath")) {
    echo "File exists on remote server.";
} else {
    echo "File does not exist on remote server.";
}