PHP Include conditional killing my performance

[JohnBee]

I have devised a small php include conditional to display a custom page if a remote file is not avilailable. I am running it in a "hook global start"

Overall it does work but I noticed that it puts a great strain on my entire forums because the condition is run contineously.

Is there a way to get the same results but only when this particular page or area is viewed?

$includefile="http://mysite2.com/on.php";
$handle = fopen($includefile, "r", 1);
if ($handle) {
    fclose($handle);
	ob_start();
	require("http://mysite2.com/on.php");
	$myfile = ob_get_contents();
	ob_end_clean();
} else {

	ob_start();
	require("/home/server/public/off.php");
	$myfile = ob_get_contents();
	ob_end_clean();
}

Can anyone think of a better way to get the same results?