PHP - Warning: File_get_contents() Http Request Failed

Hi Guys, 

Total PHP Noob here. I’ve run into a brick-wall and would appreciate some words of wisdom. 
I am working on a fairly complicated (at least to my skill level..)  home automation/IOT -project and unexpectedly have a big problem establishing a connection between the Internet and my home network. I’ve spent too many hours trying to solve this and eventually have reverted to a super basic Hello World -example to highlight the issue.

I can do this with a browser:

http://86.60.161.24  // will echo hello World

I can’t do this with my server:

<?php
  $url = 'http://86.60.161.24';
  $contents = file_get_contents($url);
  echo ($contents);
?>

It looks like the server-side HTTP -request never “touches” my Arduino-chip. No network activity detected. Obviously there is going to be a lot more data transfer happening but I need to solve this issue first. 

Is there anything I can do to make this work? Any and all input greatly appreciated. Cheers!!

Hello I am a total beginner and don't know first thing about php, but still trying to figure this out. 

So what I am trying to achieve is, send a http request from a software to my website with a ticket number, is it possible in php to receive that request and show it on a different webpage of the same site? 

It would be helpful if you can point me to some related articles. 

require_once('connection.inc.php');
    $sql = 'SELECT `filename` FROM  banner';
    $result = $mysqli->query($sql, MYSQLI_STORE_RESULT) or die(mysqli_error());
    $row = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC);//an array of image names
    $count = $result->num_rows;
    for ($i = 1; $i <= $count; ++$i) 
    {
       $row[$i] = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC);
    }
    $i = rand(1, $count); //a random number generator,
       //The random number is used in the final line to build the correct pathname for the selected file.
       $selectedImage = "images/{$row[$i]['filename']}"; 
      if (file_exists($selectedImage) && is_readable($selectedImage)) 
      {
        $imageSize = getimagesize($selectedImage);
      }

array (size=1)
    'filename' => string 'ginsomin2.jpg' (length=13)
    null

require_once 'image_generator.php';
<div id="banner" class="wrapper clearfix">
      <img src="<?php echo $selectedImage; ?>" alt="banner">
   </div>

Doing something wrong, but don't see it.  How should one retrieve a POST parameter?  My $request->toArray()['html'] works, but I am sure it is not the "right way".

<?php
namespace App\DataPersister;
use ApiPlatform\Core\DataPersister\DataPersisterInterface;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RequestStack;

class ArchivePersister implements DataPersisterInterface
{
    public function __construct(RequestStack $requestStack)
    {
        $request = $requestStack->getCurrentRequest();
        syslog(LOG_ERR, '$request->getMethod(): '.$request->getMethod());
        syslog(LOG_ERR, '$request->getContent(): '.$request->getContent());
        syslog(LOG_ERR, '$request->request->get(html): '.$request->request->get('html'));
        syslog(LOG_ERR, '$request->query->get(html): '.$request->query->get('html'));
        syslog(LOG_ERR, '$request->get(html): '.$request->get('html'));
        syslog(LOG_ERR, '$request->toArray(): '.json_encode($request->toArray()));
        syslog(LOG_ERR, '$request->toArray()[html]: '.$request->toArray()['html']);
    }
}

output

$request->getMethod(): POST
$request->getContent(): {"project":"/projects/1","description":"","html":"<p>{{ project_name }}</p>"}
$request->request->get(html):
$request->query->get(html):
$request->get(html):
$request->toArray(): {"project":"\/projects\/1","description":"","html":"<p>{{ project_name }}<\/p>"}
$request->toArray()[html]: <p>{{ project_name }}</p>