fopen() question

I have a database and I am writing a script to auto-update some information in the database. That requires me to read data from database, find the URL, read the URL, find the information I want, then update it in the database. My problem is, for example I read one record from database who's URL is http://www.somedomain.com/. And I try to read the URL with fopen() for information: $fp = fopen(³http://www.comedomain.com/², ³r²); if (!$fp) { echo ³URL not available.²; exit; } If the URL is available, things will work fine. But if the URL is NOT available, I will get a error saying ³attempt to load file ³MyFile¹s URL² failed² from browser. It¹s supposed to output the string ³URL not available², isn¹t it? Anyone know how to get around with this? Tony S. Wu tonyswu@mac.com