UrlConnection not getting latest content

Question

I have an applet that reads the contents of a file on the server once per second and displays it. The file contains one line that describes the status of a process. The problem is there is a 15-20 second delay between when the file is updated and when the applet displays the new status. Here is my applet run() method:
public void run() {
Thread currentThread = Thread.currentThread();
StatusField.setText("Testing");
String host ="192.168.3.14";
String protocol ="http";
int port =80;
int count = 0;
BufferedReader bufferedReader = null;
String stat = "";
try {
while (currentThread == theThread) {
URL url = new URL(protocol, host, port, fileName);
URLConnection urlConnection = url.openConnection();
//turn off cache
urlConnection.setUseCaches(false);
urlConnection.setDoInput (true);
bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new
InputStreamReader(urlConnection.getInputStream(), "UTF8"));
stat = bufferedReader.readLine();
System.out.println("Status: " + stat);
StatusField.setText(stat);
bufferedReader.close();
bufferedReader = null;
urlConnection = null;
url = null;
System.gc();
currentThread.sleep(1000);
}catch (Exception e) {
StatusField.setText(e.getMessage());
}

Answer 1

Thanks, but I don't think the problem is with the applet not painting immediately. The System.out.println shows that the BufferedReader is still reading old content even after the file has changed. I also added code to the above to show a dot in the status field every time the file is read. This dot is appearing corectly in the applet every time the file is read.