I cannot use Paypal IPN on my hosting, how can I solve it?

I am testing Paypal ipn for a website I am building, but it fails when I try to test the ipn. In particular, this line doesn't work:

$fp = fsockopen('ssl://www.sandbox.paypal.com', 443, $errno, $errstr, 30);

      

        
        
        
      

    

no check if (!$fp)

is performed (fp is false). I am assuming that it cannot connect. Why is this?

Update

I found that my hosting solution does not support ssl, in fact I get:

Warning: fsockopen () [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to ssl: //www.sandbox.paypal.com: 443 (Unable to find socket port "ssl" - did you forget to enable it when configuring PHP?)

Is there a way to overcome this without going for another hosting solution?