Might:

opendir DIR, "$confdir/";
  my @files = grep {
      $_ ne '.' &&
      $_ ne '..' &&
      }
  readdir DIR;
  closedir DIR;
  unless (grep{$_ eq $urlist} @files) {
      die "You requested a page that does not exist.
      You might find what you're looking for by starting at site
      home of http://host.dom/index.pl?page=home\n";
      }
[download]

be 'quicker' as:
unless ( -s "$confdir/$urlist" )
I guess, maybe you're getting an actual 'list' in $urlist, though w/ the \w, not sure how.

a