Applet referencing server copy of jars already cached

Question

I'm maintaining an applet. All jars are signed. Aside from the applet jar itself, it requires 9 additional jars totalling >30MB (I didn't originate this design).
I know Swing, but next to nothing about applet deployment.
Security is web-based (SiteMinder)
The serving page's <OBJECT> entry looks like this:
<OBJECT classid="clsid:CAFEEF...."
    name="AppName"
    width="800" height="200" align="top"
    codebase="/static/jre/jre-1_5_0_11-windows-i586-p.exe#Version=1,5,0,11">
    <PARAM NAME="cache_archive" VALUE="/static/code/signed_TheApplet.jar, /static/code/signed_essd9.jar, /static/code/signed_janino.jar, /static/code/signed_jdom.jar, /static/code/signed_l2fprod-common-all.jar, /static/code/signed_log4j-1.2.8.jar, /static/code/signed_naf.jar, /static/code/signed_OfficeLnFs_2.6.jar, /static/code/signed_swing-layout-1.0.jar, /static/code/signed_xerces.jar">
    <PARAM NAME="cache_version" VALUE="1.0.0.22, 9.0.0.0, 9.0.0.0, 1.0.0.0, 1.0.0.0, 1.2.8.0, 1.0.0.0, 2.6.0.0, 1.0.0.0, 2.6.1.0">
    <PARAM name="code" value="com.some.package.ui.TheApplet.class">(It does not use the cache_archive_ex tag, which I have seen mentioned in forums and articles, but do not completely understand)
I have the 1.5 plugin. I open the cache and clear it, but keep it open to watch the arrival of the jars. I also have Filemon running to watch the access of the files in the cache.
So, hit the applet page, and in the console you see several blocks of output, where it's retrieving each jar specified in the <OBJECT> tag of the serving page. Each block passes by, stalling as the file downloads. When the log continues, the file has appeared in the cache. All good. I understand that much.
The cache viewer now shows all 10 jars, and the URL for each one is the SERVER url of the jar, as specified in the HTML page that served the applet.
So now, the app starts to load. By this point I've seen thousands of hits on the locally cached jars, meaning the applet is using them as it initializes.
Now, in the console, what I see for each jar again is a block of code. Different from the first blocks, where the console was saying
basic: Connecting [jar URL] over and over... now it's saying:
network: Connecting https://[SERVER URL]/signed_essd9.jar with proxy=DIRECT
network: Connecting https://[SERVER URL]/signed_essd9.jar with cookie "mdt_target=[target]; SMSESSION=[giant cookie expression]; JSESSIONID=[session id]"And with each such block there is a pause. That pause is congruent with the size of the jar. essd9 (Actuate's eSpreadsheet jar) is 19MB... the pause is 2 minutes. xerces.... maybe 5 seconds.
My Question:
If you set up an applet-serving page to force the download of a bunch of jars... and caching is turned on in the plugin....and Filemon shows that the application is using those jars...
Then why does the console appear to be referencing the jars on the server again.... why is it hitting those originating URLs... and not just for a second... long enough that it FEELS like a download (even though the cached version don't change)?
ANY help at all would be very much appreciated. And please, if you just want to say that you "have the same problem", put a watch on the thread and see if a solution arises. Please don't pollute the thread with a bunch of entries like that. It makes the forums inefficient and difficult to read.
Thanks in advance.
Pete

Answer 1

Thanks for the link. The confusing thing is, is that the behavior is correct when using the java 1.5 plugin. I used ethereal to sniff the packets being downloaded and found that the Last-Modified date for the jar is in fact correct, and I opened the IDX files that were created each time the plugin downloaded the same jar and verified that the Last-Modified value does match the one that I sniffed during the download.
I was assuming that the plugin would look in the IDX file to compare the Last-Modified value with the one on the server before downloading it, so it could avoid the unnecessary download, but that only appears to happen when using the 1.5 plugin.
Any further ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks.