Loading an image from an arbitrary URL without using an ImageIcon

Question

Can anybody maybe point me in the direction of other (as in harder-to-use, but more flexible) ways to load an image from a URL?

Answer 1

Interesting results:
When I run this test code (the names have been changed to protect the innocent):
package graphicstest;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.imageio.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
* <p>Title: </p>
* <p>Description: </p>
* <p>Copyright: Copyright (c) 2007</p>
* <p>Company: </p>
* @author not attributable
* @version 1.0
public class Foo
    extends JFrame {
  static ImageIcon ii;
  public Foo() {
    setSize(200,200);
    try {
      System.out.println("2=aborted; 8=complete; 4=errored; 1=loading");
      ii = new ImageIcon(new URL("http://intranet/part?FOO.JPG"));
      System.out.println("image load status: " + ii.getImageLoadStatus());
      getContentPane().add(new JLabel(ii));
      System.out.println("image load status: " + ii.getImageLoadStatus());
    }catch(Throwable t) {t.printStackTrace();}
  public static void main(String args[]) {
      Foo foo = new Foo();
      foo.setVisible(true);
      if (ii.getImageLoadStatus() == 4) {
        try {
          BufferedImage bi = ImageIO.read(new URL(
                "http://intranet/part?FOO.JPG"));
          ii.setImage(bi);
          foo.validate();
          foo.repaint();
        } catch(Throwable t) {t.printStackTrace();};
}. . . from a box that's not on the VPN, it blows up at the ImageIO.read() call (not unexpectedly). But if I run it from a box that's on the VPN, and able to access the URL, then it returns just fine from the ImageIO.read(), and I get a null pointer exception at the call to setImage().
Clearly, this is trying to tell me SOMETHING, but I don't quite know WHAT.
JHHL