Php ldap bind - Unable to bind to server: Invalid credentials - php

Question

I have checked tons of solutions for this problem and yet none of them solved my problem, I am building a laravel app and need to authenticate users against AD for that purpose I found that I can accomplish this with the following script
$ldap_dn = "uid=user,dc=example,dc=local";
$ldap_password = "somePassword";
$ldap_con = ldap_connect("ldap://domain") or die("Could not connect to LDAP server.");
ldap_set_option($ldap_con, LDAP_OPT_PROTOCOL_VERSION, 3);
ldap_set_option($ldap_con, LDAP_OPT_REFERRALS, 0);
$bind = ldap_bind($ldap_con, $ldap_dn, $ldap_password);
if($bind)
{
return "Authenticated";
}
However, I keep getting the same error, no matter how I change my parameters. Here's a list of things I've tried:
modifying this line $ldap_dn = "uid=user,dc=example,dc=local"; to:
$ldap_dn = "cn=user,dc=example,dc=local";
$ldap_dn = "uid=domain\user,dc=example,dc=local";
$ldap_dn = "sAMAccountName=user,dc=example,dc=local";
I am sure my credentials are correct, I have tested this in C# and it works perfectly with the following script:
public static bool IsAuthenticated(string ldap, string usr, string pwd)
{
bool authenticated = false;
try
{
DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(ldap, usr, pwd);
object nativeObject = entry.NativeObject;
authenticated = true;
}
catch (DirectoryServicesCOMException cex)
{
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
return authenticated;
}
I even tried compiling a c# dll to bypass ldap binding in php but got to a dead-end with that solution too...