checking if a link is still "alive"

Hi there! I would like to implement a feature to a website I'm working at right now but don't know where to start (searching), so maybe one of you can give me a hint. The "Links" page is dynamically created out of a database. Now what I want is to have a function that checks (each time) if all links are still "alive" and to display only valid links. Is there any posibility to check if there is actually a website behind a link or just, let's say a 404? Would be a nice feature, together with an email notification to the webmaster, I think... Any hints are appreciated. Cheers, Kiko ----- It's not a bug, it's a feature. christoph starkmann mailto:kiko@nfq.de http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~kiko ICQ: 100601600 -----