What steps can be taken to troubleshoot "Could not connect to host" errors in PHP web services?

The "Could not connect to host" error in PHP web services typically indicates a problem with establishing a connection to the specified host. To troubleshoot this issue, ensure that the host address is correct, the host server is running, and any firewall settings are not blocking the connection.

// Example code snippet to troubleshoot "Could not connect to host" errors in PHP web services

$host = 'example.com'; // Specify the host address
$port = 80; // Specify the port number

$connection = @fsockopen($host, $port, $errno, $errstr, 10);

if (!$connection) {
    echo "Could not connect to host: $errstr ($errno)";
} else {
    echo "Connection established successfully!";
    fclose($connection);
}