NoClassDefFound causing servlet exception on Tomcat 4.1

Question

This has got to be something stupid I am doing wrong but I'm a little rusty so could someone help me out. When executing a servlet on Tomcat 4.1 I get the error:
javax.servlet.ServletException: Cannot allocate servlet instance for path /docmgt/servlet/Remail
ROOT CAUSE:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: SimpleAuthenticator
The Class file "SimpleAuthenticator" is just returning a username and password for a mailserver authentication. It is called from the servlet "Remail". I thought that all you had to do was place the class file into the same directory with the servlet for it to be able to access it...since that didn't work, I placed it in all the shared library folders of Tomcat and it still isn't working.
Any ideas?
thanks in advance,
Chuck

Answer 1

With tomcat4.1 try putting the file into a package, put the package directory under WEB-INF/classes and importing the class inot your servlet.