Check link in phpbb post

Function I have (in includes/functions_posting.php):

function url_exists($url) {

    $handle = @fopen($url, "r");

    if ($handle === false){

        return false;

        fclose($handle);

    }

    else{

        return true;

        fclose($handle);

    }

}

Usage (In posting.php):

$your_url = "http://www.somewhere.com/index.php";



$your_url = preg_replace(array('#&\#46;#','#&\#58;#','/\[(.*?)\]/'), array('.',':',''), $your_url);



if (url_exists($your_url))

{

echo 'yeah, its reachable';

}

else

{

echo 'what da hell..';

}

I think it works just fine. I get the text echoed on header with an error saying headers already sent. Instead of echo I now use trigger_error('error message); Now I get the error the way I want it to be,except that no matter what the url I have in $your_url I keep getting the same error that the URL exists even when it's not!

Also,I'd like to make the function work after I click submit topic and not when I click create new topic.

Thanks. :)