URLClassLoader hangs - never returns

Question

Hello all,
I am having a problem using the URLClassLoader. I am using the Apache 1.3.19 with the Tomcat 3.2.1 serverl/jsp engine.
I have an Applet displays a splash screen and then uses the URLClassLoader to load my jar file and start my main Applet. This works great when I use appletviewer or a web browser from the same machine that Apache and Tomcat are running on. However, when I use a browser on another machine, the Applet hangs on the ClassLoader loader = new URLClassLoader(jarFile); line. I have put debug code in there and I know for a fact that it is the URLClassLoader that is hanging the applet.
Any ideas? Here is the source code...
{        // other code.....
// Get our current URL code base
URL currentPage = getCodeBase();
// Put the jar location string together
StringBuffer strBuf = new StringBuffer(
"http://" + currentPage.getHost() + ":" + currentPage.getPort() + currentPage.getPath() + "MyJarFile.jar");
// Add the URL to the array for the ClassLoader
URL[] jarFile = new URL[1];
jarFile[0] = new URL(new String(strBuf));
// Load the jar file
// This line hangs if you are not running on the same machine as the web server
ClassLoader loader = new URLClassLoader(jarFile);
// Get our image from the jar file
splashImage = LoadImageIcon.getImage(splashFile, loader);
// Call the paint function to draw the image
paint(this.getGraphics());
// Load the main applet
Class mainClass = loader.loadClass(mainApplet);
// Get a new instance of our main applet
Component mainInstance =
(Component)mainClass.newInstance();
// Launch the main applet
this.getContentPane().add(mainInstance);
Please let me know if you have any suggestions or need any further information.

Answer 1

Found the problem.
My applet was throwing an AccessControlException that I was not catching. You cannot use the URLClassLoader from an applet since you do not have access to the file system.
I was able to fix this by including all of the files in one jar file, implementing AppletStub, and then using the ClassLoader and Class classes. Here is the functional code if anyone is interested...
// Get our image from the jar file using this applets class loader
splashImage = LoadImageIcon.getImage(splashFile, this.getClass().getClassLoader());
// Make sure that the splash screen get's painted right away
paint(this.getGraphics());
// Get the class for the main applet
Class appletClass = Class.forName(mainApplet);
// Create a new instance of the main applet
JApplet realApplet = (JApplet)appletClass.newInstance();
// Set this applet to be the stub of the applet
realApplet.setStub(this);
// Add the main applet to the screen
getContentPane().add(realApplet);
// Init and start the main applet
realApplet.init();
realApplet.start();
// Stop painting the splash screen
keepPainting = false;
// Remove the splash screen and show our applet
validate();