diff --git a/backend/apps/rag/main.py b/backend/apps/rag/main.py
index cf2e8b3e6..5167fcf6c 100644
--- a/backend/apps/rag/main.py
+++ b/backend/apps/rag/main.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ from fastapi import (
     Form,
 )
 from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
+import requests
 import os, shutil, logging, re
 from datetime import datetime
 
@@ -716,36 +717,19 @@ def validate_url(url: Union[str, Sequence[str]]):
         if isinstance(validators.url(url), validators.ValidationError):
             raise ValueError(ERROR_MESSAGES.INVALID_URL)
         if not ENABLE_RAG_LOCAL_WEB_FETCH:
-            # Local web fetch is disabled, filter out any URLs that resolve to private IP addresses
-            parsed_url = urllib.parse.urlparse(url)
-            # Get IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
-            ipv4_addresses, ipv6_addresses = resolve_hostname(parsed_url.hostname)
-            # Check if any of the resolved addresses are private
-            # This is technically still vulnerable to DNS rebinding attacks, as we don't control WebBaseLoader
-            for ip in ipv4_addresses:
-                if validators.ipv4(ip, private=True):
-                    raise ValueError(ERROR_MESSAGES.INVALID_URL)
-            for ip in ipv6_addresses:
-                if validators.ipv6(ip, private=True):
+            # Check if the URL exists by making a HEAD request        
+            try:
+                response = requests.head(url, allow_redirects=True)
+                if response.status_code != 200:
                     raise ValueError(ERROR_MESSAGES.INVALID_URL)
+            except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
+                raise ValueError(ERROR_MESSAGES.INVALID_URL)
         return True
     elif isinstance(url, Sequence):
         return all(validate_url(u) for u in url)
     else:
         return False
 
-
-def resolve_hostname(hostname):
-    # Get address information
-    addr_info = socket.getaddrinfo(hostname, None)
-
-    # Extract IP addresses from address information
-    ipv4_addresses = [info[4][0] for info in addr_info if info[0] == socket.AF_INET]
-    ipv6_addresses = [info[4][0] for info in addr_info if info[0] == socket.AF_INET6]
-
-    return ipv4_addresses, ipv6_addresses
-
-
 def search_web(engine: str, query: str) -> list[SearchResult]:
     """Search the web using a search engine and return the results as a list of SearchResult objects.
     Will look for a search engine API key in environment variables in the following order: