OK, I figured out my problem. It turns out that the reinstall had nothing to do with it. The difference between when it worked and when it didn't was apparently it works when I run it from work and it doesn't when I run it from home. I narrowed down the problem to the fact that java seems to be expecting to find a host called webproxy. At work we have a host called webproxy, at home I don't. I put a webproxy in my c:\WINDOWS\HOSTS file which points to my ISP proxy (which isn't necessary, I have a direct connection). Now it works fine. Any idea why the JRE is expecting a webproxy? I have my proxy settings set to Direct Connection. Thanks for any ideas, Dave
