Java Web Start problems

I’ve recently set up remote access to a customer’s site via a VPN connection. I am frequently having a problem with Java Web Start when I try to run the application remotely. The download starts OK, but once it reaches about a third of the way through, it stops and displays the error “Download Stalled”.

Has anyone else had this problem and is there anything I can look at to find out what is going wrong?

  1. What version of Java are you running on the Client end of this connection?
  2. Try clearing the java-webstart cache (Control Panel -> Java -> Temporary Internet Files/Settings -> Delete Files…) and see if after that, anything changes.

I’ve never heard about this one, but a quick google search shows that you’re not alone.

Hi Carl,

I’m running Java version 6 update 7 on the client. Clearing the cache didn’t make any difference - it still seems to stall at about the same point every time.

Al

Do you have any other client machines available to see if it is a machine-specific problem? What kind of VPN connection is it?

It’s an IPSec VPN. I tried both Java 6 update 3 and Java 6 update 10 on the same machine without any apparent change in behaviour. I then noticed that although the dialog box said ‘Download stalled’, there was still activity on the network. I left the dialog open for another few minutes and the progress bar started moving again. This happened a few times, but eventually the system started.

I’m going to investigate the throughput of the link later this week.

Sounds good. I have seen it say “Download Stalled”, but it always has recovered in about 10 seconds in my experience. And this was always over VPNs. Maybe Java Web Start is a bit touchy about network speeds.