Applet won't finish loading

Question

Please bare with me as I'm new to Java. I'm using Eclipse 3.1.1. I'm working on a cheesy client server project to learn the language. I'm having difficulty with the client. It runs fine through Eclipse. When I compile my jar, sign it and run it from a web page it sits at loading. I do get my security prompt and when looking at the console I can watch my system.out... data run. My GUI just won't load. This is where my knowledge is really lacking. I think it might have to do with my infinite loop and the applet not loading completely but I'm shooting in the dark. A rough variation of my code is below. I didn't include the imports and I left out a lot of logic and objects. If I force the loop to never run (change the var to false for example) the GUI pops right up. I would really appreciate any insight (and a good reference for GUI creation). If possible please keep an answer simple, explain it, or reference something that a newbie can comprehend. I need to crawl before I can run. Thanks again!
public class Client extends Applet implements ActionListener
     private JTextField txtStatus;
     // more gui objects
     public void init()
          DisplayGUI();
     public void start()
          try
               Connect();
               Listen();
          catch ( Exception e )
               // error handling
     public void DisplayGUI()
          txtStatus = new JTextField( 5 );
          // more objects created
          setLayout( null );
          txtStatus.setBounds( 10, 370, 495, 25 );
          // position other objects
          add( txtStatus );
          // add other objects
          this.validate();
          this.addNotify();
          this.setVisible( true );
          resize( new Dimension( 600, 400 ) );
          repaint();
     public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent evt )
          // logic
     public void Connect() throws IOException
          channel = SocketChannel.open();
          socket = channel.socket();
          socket.setSoTimeout( 3000 );
          channel.connect( new InetSocketAddress( ipa, port ) );
     public void Listen( String sid )
          boolean connected = false;
          IsListening = true;
          while ( IsListening )
               ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate( 512 );
               int bytesread;
               try
                    bytesread = channel.read( buffer );
               catch ( IOException e )
                    bytesread = -1;
               if ( bytesread < 0 )
                    continue;
               try
                    buffer.flip();
                    // grab buffer data
                    buffer.clear();
                    // process data
               catch ( IOException e )
                    // error handling
                    IsListening = false;
                    connected = false;
                    break;
}

Answer 1

Also in your catch blocks you should print the stack trace of any exception thrown.
Then you should look at the Applet console of your browser to see if there is any problem.
Regards