file exist check failing

[eluser]bhakti.thakkar[/eluser]
hi all,
some PDF's generated by my application on click of "save and print" are directly stored on the server (remote). there is a view to see the PDF's generated till date and the user can access that PDF as and well he wants. but there are cases when the file is move to a different location or is deleted because of some reason. i want to check where the file still resides on the specified path or not.. how can i do so. i tried if( file_exists($source)) but it doesnt work. how can i do this

also tried below as i am accessing files on remote server:

Code:

if (fclose(fopen($source, "r")))

    {
        $status = "present";
    } else {
        $status = "not present";
    }

but even this is not working
Thanks