asp linking help

hey after learning some basic asp i've managed to learn this little gem:

Code:
<%
dim a
dim b
set nl=server.createobject("MSWC.Nextlink")
a = nl.GetListCount("link\links.txt")
b = 1
%>
<ul>
<%do while (b <= a) %>
<li><a href="<%=nl.GetNthURL("link\links.txt", b)%>">
<%=nl.GetNthDescription("link\links.txt", b)%></a>
<%
b = (b + 1)
loop
%>



Which uses text files like:

Code:

stuff.asp stuff
morestuff.asp Woo
www.google.com Google



It's great as long as i only want to link to pages within the same domain. The code stops working when i try to link to page outside my own doman. ie www.google.com.au/ as it tries to go to http://localhost/webpage/www.google.com.au/ instead of the url. Anyone know how to fix?
If i put http into the textfile it doesn't work either.