What are the common challenges when using fsockopen to communicate with a server in PHP?

One common challenge when using fsockopen to communicate with a server in PHP is handling connection errors or timeouts. To solve this, you can set a timeout value for the connection and check for errors when opening the socket.

// Set a timeout value for the connection
$timeout = 10;

// Open a socket connection
$socket = fsockopen('example.com', 80, $errno, $errstr, $timeout);

// Check for connection errors
if(!$socket) {
    echo "Error: $errstr ($errno)";
} else {
    // Communication logic here
}