title: PHP sockets - connection refused (unusual cause?)
body: <p>I have a problem with a PHP script triggering a "connection refused" message. Im trying to execute file_get_contents('<a href="http://some_domain" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://some_domain</a>'). I have also tried fsockopen(), socket_create() and curl_exec() but they all result in "connection refused" on some specific sites that I want to reach. (i.e. its not a general problem). </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>The resources <em>do</em> exist and I can contact them via my browser.</li>
  <li>If I run the PHP on my localhost server, it connects OK</li>
  <li><p>The problem is only apparent if I run the code on either of my remote servers</p></li>
  <li><p>The problem only occurs with <em>some</em> sites, not all sites</p></li>
  <li>The code worked OK until a few weeks ago</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>A common factor is that the three sites Im trying to reach are all running web servers behind domestic broadband routers that I installed (but with different broadband providers). But - as I said above - I can access them all from my browser, and the code worked until a few weeks ago. As far as I can see its not a firewall issue in the routers.</p>
  
  <p>Im not sure what all that means - could there be some firewall issue on some intervening machine? How could I tell?</p>