How to determine total number of open/active connections in ms sql server 2005

This shows the number of connections per each DB:

SELECT 
    DB_NAME(dbid) as DBName, 
    COUNT(dbid) as NumberOfConnections,
    loginame as LoginName
FROM
    sys.sysprocesses
WHERE 
    dbid > 0
GROUP BY 
    dbid, loginame

And this gives the total:

SELECT 
    COUNT(dbid) as TotalConnections
FROM
    sys.sysprocesses
WHERE 
    dbid > 0

If you need more detail, run:

sp_who2 'Active'

Note: The SQL Server account used needs the 'sysadmin' role (otherwise it will just show a single row and a count of 1 as the result)

As @jwalkerjr mentioned, you should be disposing of connections in code (if connection pooling is enabled, they are just returned to the connection pool). The prescribed way to do this is using the 'using' statement:

// Execute stored proc to read data from repository
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(this.connectionString))
{
    using (SqlCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand())
    {
        cmd.CommandText = "LoadFromRepository";
        cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
        cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ID", fileID);

        conn.Open();
        using (SqlDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection))
        {
            if (rdr.Read())
            {
                filename = SaveToFileSystem(rdr, folderfilepath);
            }
        }
    }
}

If your PHP app is holding open many SQL Server connections, then, as you may know, you have a problem with your app's database code. It should be releasing/disposing those connections after use and using connection pooling. Have a look here for a decent article on the topic...

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/dsdaf/ConnPooling07262006093645AM/ConnPooling.aspx

SELECT
[DATABASE] = DB_NAME(DBID), 
OPNEDCONNECTIONS =COUNT(DBID),
[USER] =LOGINAME
FROM SYS.SYSPROCESSES
GROUP BY DBID, LOGINAME
ORDER BY DB_NAME(DBID), LOGINAME