No applets work in browser

[Chotor]

Any applet I try to start will fail to load (throws an exception in Java Console).

Java desktop programs do work fine.
Java applets used to work on this machine.

When doing Java Tester - Home Page I get... :

Firefox tells me outright that I do not have java installed.
IE will fire up java, but times out with an exception.

Why is Java not working from within the browser?

When I do "java -version" I get

Q:\>java -version
java version "1.6.0_02"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_02-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_02-b06, mixed mode)

Here's the exception for Java Tester - Home Page under IE:

load: class JavaVersionDisplayApplet.class not found.
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: JavaVersionDisplayApplet.class
	at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadCode(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(Unknown Source)
	at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out: connect
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(Unknown Source)
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(Unknown Source)
	at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
	at java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getNewHttpClient(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
	at java.net.HttpURLConnection.getResponseCode(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.getBytes(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source)
	at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	... 10 more

[Hodson]

Uninstall and reinstall Java. May have corrupted somehow.