URL exists?

[Shari]

>I think the only way that will be technically faster than this would 
>be to use sockets, and make a HEAD request, rather than a GET for 
>the url in question.
>
>You'd have to look up http protocol, but basically what it does it 
>let you get just the http headers for a page rather than the 
>contents. You'd also have to parse the return code...
>
>But it would be faster than fetching the whole page when it exists. 
>If you want to try that, I can probably dig out a URL to read up on 
>it.
>
>Depending on the circumstance, it might also help to do some sort of 
>lookup on the domain name first and see if that fails- 
>hostnameToAddress() for example.
>
>HTH

I originally tinkered with HostNameToAddress() and it works quickly 
unless the page does not exist.  Then it is very slow.  Trouble is, 
it checks that the whole domain exists, not specifically a page of it.

I have not tried sockets.  They fall into the baffling category... 
one of those areas I don't have a strong understanding of.  I may 
tinker with this though, as it is just too painfully slow as it is.

Shari
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