I have what appears to be an original problem. I'm currently running
JRE 1.4_06. Everything works fine. However, if I upgrade to JRE 5.0
(any build), Java no longer works. I get a General Exception Error with
following errors (this while trying to verify the JRE 5.0 installation
at the Java site):


basic: Registered modality listener
basic: Referencing classloader: sun.plugin.ClassLoaderInfo@a6aeed,
refcount=1
basic: Added progress listener: sun.plugin.util.GrayBoxPainter@af8358
basic: Loading applet ...
basic: Initializing applet ...
basic: Starting applet ...
network: Connecting http://www.java.com/jsp_utils/JavaCallJS.class with
proxy=DIRECT
network: Connecting http://www.java.com/jsp_utils/JavaCallJS/class.class
with proxy=DIRECT
load: class JavaCallJS.class not found.
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: JavaCallJS.class
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadCode(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: open HTTP connection failed.
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.getBytes(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
... 10 more
basic: Exception: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: JavaCallJS.class

The error that has caught my eye is "open HTTP connection failed". I
have local Java apps (Eclipse IDE, Unlimited FTP) that run fine but
can't access the internet. But applets don't run - just generate errors
like above. Turns out that there are no Java related plugins in the
Firefox plugins directory. I've got Quicktime and Flash related files
there, but nothing Java related. If I try to install JRE 5, it tells me
that it's already installed. Yet applets (e.g. www.java.com) cause
General Exception Errors and I still have no Java related files in my
plugins directory.

Another manifestation of the problem was that while trying to use
TurboTax to do my taxes, I continued to get the following XML error:
Loading: Msxml2.DOMDocument.3.0

Are these related? Does anybody have ideas as to the cause of this?
Thx
-K2