fopen url validation doesn't work

[philosophia]

hi all
i'm trying to use fopen to check to see if a url entered is valid or not. here's the code i'm using to check the url

{
// check URL format
if (strstr($new_url, "http://")===false)
$new_url = "http://".$new_url;

// check URL is valid
if (@fopen($new_url, "r"))
{

// try to add bm
if (add_bm($new_url))
echo "Bookmark added.";
else
echo "Could not add bookmark.";
}
else
echo "Not a valid URL.";
}

i'm working through the lessons in php and mysql web development by welling and thomson. no matter what url i type in, i get the same msg: 'Not a valid URL.', so i'm guessing there's something wrong with the syntax in this if then statement. if anyone has any ideas, i'd really appreciate it.

thanks
p.

[khaine]

Why not use checkdnsrr to check for a valid url. Something like

<?
if ( !checkdnsrr($url, A) )
{
echo "The URL ".$url." is not valid.";
}

?>

the A as the second option makes the function check that an A record exists for the supplied url. No A record no website.

Mark.