Trying to follow RMI trail and failing

Question

I've read through a number of postings here in an effort to try to see a commonality; however, I still can't see what I'm doing wrong.
I am not a new Java pgm'r, but RMI is brand new to me. I went entirely through the trail:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/rmi/index.html
I followed everything as closely as I could and got as far as "Running the Example Programs", and that's where I fell down. I hope all this info does NOT intimidate anyone from reading further, but here goes:
1. All my 'server' stuff looks like this:
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes
                              |
                              |___client   <dir>
                              |     |___________Pi.class 
                              |___compute  <dir>
                              |     |___________Compute.class
                              |     |___________Task.class
                              |___engine   <dir>
                              |     |___________ComputeEngine_Stub.class
                              |     |___________ComputeEngine_Skel.class
                              |___META-INF <dir>
                              |     |___________MANIFEST.MF
                              |___compute.jar
                              |___java.policy
                              |___startRMI.bat
                              |___unpack.bat2. All my client stuff is like this:
C:\MyMoveSubDir\Mysendrecv\Billsdir\RMI\ComputeEngine
                                        |__compute <dir>
                                        |   |__Compute.java
                                        |   |__Compute.class
                                        |   |__Task.java
                                        |   |__Task.class
                                        |__engine  <dir>
                                        |   |__ComputeEngine.java
                                        |   |__ComputeEngine.class
                                        |   |__ComputeEngine_Stub.class
                                        |   |__ComputeEngine_Skel.class
                                        |__client  <dir>
                                        |   |__ComputePi.java
                                        |   |__ComputePi.class
                                        |   |__Pi.java
                                        |   |__Pi.class
                                        |__compute.jar
                                        |__javacjar.bat
                                        |__javacrmi.bat
                                        |__javajarClient.batAll of the above are the result of running the batch files discussed below; and the contents of all of these modules is exactly as posted in the RMI trail I mentioned above. I changed NOT A SINGLE LINE OF CODE, including the package statements.
The contents of all the server batch files is as follows:
1. startRMI.bat:
set CLASSPATH=
start rmiregistry
pause
set CLASSPATH=C:\MyMoveSubDir\Mysendrecv\Billsdir\RMI\ComputeEngine;c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes\compute.jar
pause
java -D java.rmi.server.codebase=file:/c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes/ -D java.rmi.server.hostname=xxxx.xxxx.xxx -D java.security.policy=java.policy engine.ComputeEngine
pause2. unpack.bat:
jar xvf compute.jar
pause3. The contents of the java.policy file is:
grant {
    permission java.net.SocketPermission "*:1024-65535",
        "connect,accept";
    permission java.io.FilePermission
        "c:\\home\\msdwjj\\public_html\\classes\\-", "read";
};The contents of all the client batch files is as follows:
1. javacjar.bat:
javac compute\*.java
pause
jar cvf compute.jar compute\*.class
pause2. javacrmi.bat:
set CLASSPATH=C:\MyMoveSubDir\Mysendrecv\Billsdir\RMI\ComputeEngine;c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes\compute.jar
pause
javac engine\ComputeEngine.java
pause
rmic -d . engine.ComputeEngine
pause
copy engine\ComputeEngine_*.class c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes\engine
pause3. javacjarClient.bat:
set CLASSPATH=C:\MyMoveSubDir\Mysendrecv\Billsdir\RMI\ComputeEngine;c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes\compute.jar
pause
javac client\ComputePi.java
pause
javac -d c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes client\Pi.java
pauseThe contents of compute.jar are:
> Compute.class
> Task.class
> Manifest.mf
I get all through compiling and when I get to actually try to run this, as per the instructions (and via the startRMI.bat file) I get this:
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes>set CLASSPATH=
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes>start rmiregistry
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes>pause
Press any key to continue . . .
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes>set CLASSPATH=C:\MyMoveSubDir\Mysendrecv\Bill
sdir\RMI\ComputeEngine;c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes\compute.jar
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes>pause
Press any key to continue . . .
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes>java -D java.rmi.server.codebase=file:/c:\hom
e\msdwjj\public_html\classes/ -D java.rmi.server.hostname=xxxx.xxxx.xxx -D j
ava.security.policy=java.policy engine.ComputeEngine
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: java/rmi/server/codeb
ase=file:/c:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes/
C:\home\msdwjj\public_html\classes>pause
Press any key to continue . . .The C:\jdk1.3.1_04\bin\rmiregistry.exe window does come up.
So, if you've gotten this far, thank you very much. I hope someone might be able to help me with this. Thanks in advance.
~Bill

Answer 1

boZZi,
May I ask you another question? ... or for that matter anyone else who can offer another helping hand.
I changed my host name (stupid mistake, and I did see that one, but I promised the dukes and so there it is). So now my Server side is running and it's at 'ComputeEngine bound'.
But the last part of this tutorial is extremely confusing to me. It is telling me the following, and you can see it yourself at this link:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/rmi/running.html
... Under the section: 'Start the Client'. There it provides the following instructions:
"Once the registry and the engine are running, you can start the client,
specifying The location where the client serves up its classes (the Pi
class), using the java.rmi.server.codebase property As command line
arguments the host name of the server--so that the client knows where
to locate the Compute remote object--and the number of decimal places
to use in the  calculation The java.security.policy property, used to
specify the policy file that contains the permissions you intend to
grant specific code bases First, set the CLASSPATH to see jones's
client and the JAR file containing the interfaces. Then start the
client on another host (one named ford, for example) as follows:
Microsoft Windows:
set CLASSPATH c:\home\jones\src;c:\home\jones\public_html\classes\compute.jar
java -Djava.rmi.server.codebase=file:/c:\home\jones\public_html\classes/
     -Djava.security.policy=java.policy
     client.ComputePi zaphod.east.sun.com 20
UNIX:
setenv CLASSPATH /home/jones/src:/home/jones/public_html/classes/compute.jar
java -Djava.rmi.server.codebase=http://ford/~jones/classes/
     -Djava.security.policy=java.policy
        client.ComputePi zaphod.east.sun.com 20"1st off, on my Solaris box, there is no setenv command. 2nd of all, I realize that here the auther is suggesting using an HTTP URL for the Unix OS, and a file URL on the MS OS; but why is the MS FILE URL pointing in the 'codebase' to a directory structure - file:/c:\home\jones\public_html\classes/ - that exist on the server, while on the Unix OS it's pointing to a directory structure on the Client - http://ford/~jones/classes/ ? ... I say that because the instructions are to start the Client from another hostname, and he used as an example 'ford'.
This particular statement makes no sense to me:
"The location where the client serves up its classes (the Pi class), using the java.rmi.server.codebase property."
... Why would the server.codebase include information on where the client's classes are?
It's my understanding that the Client programs only - in this case Pi.class and ComputePi.class - exist on the Client. But this tutorial is not particularly clear it seems. What am I missing here ... any ideas? Thanks in advance.
~Bill