JDK 1.4 broke applets

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All,

Having downloaded & installed the Sun 1.4 JDK, I can no longer run any
applets using the plugin.

For example, if I go to
http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.4/demos/applets/Clock/example1.html I
get a console message:
load: class Clock.class not found.
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Clock.class
        <stacktrace not shown>
Caused by: java.io.IOException: open HTTP connection failed.
        <stacktrace not shown>

I've looked in the JDC forums, and there seems to be a number of people
reporting this issue (something to do with proxy servers), but no-one has a
solution. So I thought I'd ask you guys <pathetic fawning> since your
smarter </pathetic fawning>.

Chris.