Basically what it means is that if you use the Sun Java Plug-In in your browser, it's important that you make sure it's up-to-date because a security problem has been found in earlier versions but is fixed in the most recent versions.
How do I know if this affects me?
Open the Java Plug-In Control Panel. (On Windows, you can do this by going to Start | Settings | Control Panel | Java Plug-in.) (If you don't have the Sun Java Plug-in, you won't have the Java Plug-in Control Panel, and you're not affected.)
Click the About tab
If the version of the Java Plug-in is 1.4.2_05 or earlier (mine was 1.4.2_04-b05), you need to update your plug-in (see below). If the version is 1.4.2_06 or higher (such as 1.4.2_06-b03), or anything starting with 1.5, you're fine, those versions are not affected.
Ack! I have it! What does this mean?? It means you should update (see below), but other than that it doesn't mean much. The chances that you've been to a page with an applet which took advantage of the security problem are very low. (That said, you really should update, because now that the problem has been announced, there are people who may try to take advantage of it.)
How do I Update? I was surprised to find that going to www.java.com and clicking Get It Now still said I had the latest, when in fact I didn't (I had 1.4.2_04-b05). So I went to the Java Plug-in's Control Panel and told it to update itself, and it offered to install 1.4.2_05 -- which is also not the latest. So perhaps they're having a temporary problem with their automatic update stuff. So here's what I did, and what I recommend you do:
Uninstall your current Java Plug-in. On Windows, for instance, use Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs, select the entry starting with "Java 2 Runtime Environment", and click Remove. (You may have more than one of these entries; if so, remove them all.)
Follow instructions from there to install the plug-in
Then make sure your browser is actually using the new version. As it happens, we have a diagnostics page here on Pocket-Monkey which shows you the version of Java your browser is using, so it's a good way to double check:
Ok you started this thing maybe you can help me solve it. LOL I updated my Java as instructed but now evertime I shutdown my computer and come back my netscape browser says that I need to go get the plugin and sends me to download the java again. I do that again and then it will work. But again when the system is shutdown or (I think even when the browser hasn't been used for a while) Netscape will not recognize that I have the Java installed. This is getting rather tiring. I have checked my preferences on netscape and it is set to allow Java. Any suggestions?
Thanks it was worth a shot. lol I haven't had any problems with Netscape till this. I will see what I can come up with. I still could try reloading the browser itself. It is just a very odd situation. Thanks anyway.
Just to let you know incase it should happen to someone else, I finally got mine working again. Had to reload Netscape which loads the java with it and now all is well with the world again. lol
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