can I check if a file exists at a URL?

If you're attempting to verify the existence of a web resource, I would recommend using the HttpWebRequest class. This will allow you to send a HEAD request to the URL in question. Only the response headers will be returned, even if the resource exists.

var url = "http://www.domain.com/image.png";
HttpWebResponse response = null;
var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
request.Method = "HEAD";


try
{
    response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
}
catch (WebException ex)
{
    /* A WebException will be thrown if the status of the response is not `200 OK` */
}
finally
{
    // Don't forget to close your response.
    if (response != null)
    {
        response.Close();
    }
}

Of course, if you want to download the resource if it exists it would most likely be more efficient to send a GET request instead (by not setting the Method property to "HEAD", or by using the WebClient class).

If you want to just copy & paste Justin's code and get a method to use, here's how I've implemented it:

using System.Net;

public class MyClass {
    static public bool URLExists (string url) {
        bool result = false;

        WebRequest webRequest = WebRequest.Create(url);
        webRequest.Timeout = 1200; // miliseconds
        webRequest.Method = "HEAD";

        HttpWebResponse response = null;

        try {
            response = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.GetResponse();
            result = true;
        } catch (WebException webException) {
            Debug.Log(url +" doesn't exist: "+ webException.Message);
        } finally {
            if (response != null) {
                response.Close();
            }
        }

        return result;
    }
}

I'll keep his observation:

If you want to download the resource, and it exists, it would be more efficient to send a GET request instead by not setting the Method property to "HEAD" or by using the WebClient class.