Connecting to LDAP using PEAR LDAP2 in PHP - php

Question

I'm not very experienced with using LDAP and have been looking at a few stack overflow questions and tried to piece some code together.
I'm using the PEAR LDAP2 package with my php. So far I have set up my filters, but im not searching for anything yet.
All I am trying to do is set up my connection to the server but when my code reaches:
$ldap= Net_LDAP2::connect($config);
The script freezes and produces a white screen. How can i fix this?
Script below:
<?php
include '../config/connection.php';
require_once '../Scripts/Net_LDAP2-2.0.12/Net/LDAP2/LDAP2.php';
//retrieve information from the form
$username = $_POST['username'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
$usernamefilter = Net_LDAP2_Filter::create('username', 'equals', $username);
$passwordfilter = Net_LDAP2_Filter::create('password', 'equals', $password);
$combinedFilter = Net_LDAP2_Filter::combine('and', array($usernamefilter, $passwordfilter));
echo "filters have been created. <br />";
// The configuration array:
$config = array (
'binddn' => 'username',
'bindpw' => 'password',
'basedn' => 'ou=People,dc=campus,dc=aston,dc=ac,dc=uk',
'host' => 'gc.campus.aston.ac.uk',
'filter' => $combinedFilter
);
echo "config array has been set up. <br />";
// Connecting using the configuration:
$ldap = Net_LDAP2::connect($config);
echo "connection to ldap has been sent. <br />";
// Testing for connection error
if (PEAR::isError($ldap)) {
die('Could not connect to LDAP-server: '.$ldap->getMessage());
}

Answer 1

Consider verifying that the LDAP directory server is correctly responding to LDAP client requests by using a known good client. ldapsearch as distributed by the vendor is the best choice for this task. Execute the following search to verify that the server is accepting connecting client connections and responding:
ldapsearch -h gc.campus.aston.ac.uk -p <your-port> \
-D the-distinguished-name -w password \
-b 'ou=People,dc=campus,dc=aston,dc=ac,dc=uk' \
-s base '(&)' 1.1
If this hangs, fails, or returns no entries, correct the problem and re-test until the above command succeeds.
Note: if you are using the old legacy OpenLDAP ldapsearch, add the -x command line option