why can't I connect to apple push notification service?

Question

I have meet a big problem when I was doing developing about Apple Push Notification Service.

I wrote a PHP script(apns.php) which will use a PEM(ck.pem) file as security certificate and build a SSL connection to APNS when I post a HTTP request to it, but it always failed when it tried to connect the service port ( ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195). The PHP script is deployed on a Linux Hosting of GoDaddy (it should support SSL).

I have already registered to be a member of iOS developer program,and I have registered the apple push notification service for my application. And I have generated a certificate file and a key file (cert.p12 and key.p12) from Keychain Access and translate them into PEM files(cert.pem and key.pem) and join them into one(ck.pem) and put it in the same directory of PHP script .

I want to know if there is something wrong I did ! Would you refer to the attachment of the files that you may need?

Thanks very much!

The HTTP request is something like below.

http://www.insidertracker.net/apns/apns.php?message=&badge=2&sound=received5.caf

The response message of my request is below:

Warning: stream_socket_client() [function.stream-socket-client]: unable to connect to ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195 (Connection refused) in /home/content/40/6967940/html/apns/apns.php on line 25 Failed to connect 111 Connection refused

The PHP script:

<?php
$deviceToken = '0535dda1 6fd04e87 ed0a8194 d418a6c1 99eec462 8a871891 d062018d c6af4f99';
$pass = 'Php1234';   // Passphrase for the private key (ck.pem file)

// Get the parameters from http get or from command line
$message = $_GET['message'] or $message = $argv[1] or $message = 'You have an important message from InsiderTracker';
$badge = (int)$_GET['badge'] or $badge = (int)$argv[2];
$sound = $_GET['sound'] or $sound = $argv[3];

// Construct the notification payload
$body = array();
$body['aps'] = array('alert' => $message);
if ($badge)
   $body['aps']['badge'] = $badge;
if ($sound)
    $body['aps']['sound'] = $sound;

/* End of Configurable Items */
$ctx = stream_context_create();
stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'local_cert', 'ck.pem');  
// assume the private key passphase was removed.
stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'passphrase', $pass);

// connect to apns
$fp = stream_socket_client('ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195', $err, $errstr,  60, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT, $ctx);
//  $fp = fsockopen('ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195', 2195, $err, $errstr,  30);
 if (!$fp) {
    print "Failed to connect $err $errstr\n";
    return;
}
else {
   print "Connection OK\n<br/>";
}

// send message
$payload = json_encode($body);
$msg = chr(0) . pack("n",32) . pack('H*', str_replace(' ', '', $deviceToken)) . pack ("n",strlen($payload)) . $payload;
print "Sending message :" . $payload . "\n";  
fwrite($fp, $msg);
fclose($fp);
?>

warrenm warrenm · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-26T02:16:15

It's my understanding that GoDaddy prohibits outgoing connections on exotic ports (anything other than 80 a perhaps a few others). You're probably out of luck trying to roll your own push service hosted on GoDaddy. I have had luck doing what you're attempting with bluehost.

For general advice on developing a push service in PHP, these two articles were invaluable: One Two

why can't I connect to apple push notification service?

2 Answers