pfsockopen

Anywone, I've been working on an interface to IRC services for a webpage. Ideally I'd like the webpage to stay connected to the network when it's in use. pfsockopen(...) seemed to do just the thing I needed. Open a connection, and don't close it when finished.... great... but it seems you can't continue use of that connection in a subsequent script. Either I'm missing something obvious that allows you to do this, or I've missed the point pfsockopen completely. Any help or information greatly appreciated. Many thanks Dan