The below will return True/False

import socket

def test_connection(host="8.8.8.8", port=53, timeout=3):
  try:
    socket.setdefaulttimeout(timeout)
    socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM).connect((host, port))
    return True
  except Exception as ex:
    #print ex.message
    return False


destination_host = "mymachine.company"
destination_port = 9997
timeout = 2
test_result = test_connection(destination_host, destination_port, timeout)

Or you can use this version to return the Exception in case connection has failed

import socket

def test_connection(host="8.8.8.8", port=53, timeout=3):
  try:
    socket.setdefaulttimeout(timeout)
    socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM).connect((host, port))
    return True, None
  except Exception as ex:
    #print ex.message
    return False, ex.message


destination_host = "mymachine.company"
destination_port = 9997
timeout = 2
test_result, ex = test_connection(destination_host, destination_port, timeout)