java problem...big5

[keveaton]

hi guys and girls, hope all is well.

im not sure if this is the right place to post this, so apologies if so, here goes anyway.
i have a customer who uses a java applet to view real time stock quotes from FInet. this is a company based in hong kong. he had this problem on his PC whereby it wouldnt display the applet, just a place holder (the java cup with the sun going round it). i tried everything i could think of, ended up rebuilding his machine in the end (WinXP). still had the same problem. i then started installing progressively older versions of java, and found one that worked (1.5.0) i got this from oldapps.com.

now he has added a laptop to his network, and it had the same problem. no worries i thought, this will be easy....downloa ded the same version of java and voil...ahh, it doesnt work. i have tried every version of java from 1.5.0 up to present release and it doesnt work. i have matched every security setting in ie, i have tried firefox, disabled firwall etc. both machines are connected to the same router via a cable.

in the java console, it is reporting the following repeatedly:

java.io.Unsuppo rtedEncodingExc eption: Big5
at sun.nio.cs.Stre amDecoder.forIn putStreamReader (Unknown Source)
at java.io.InputSt reamReader.<ini t>(Unknown Source)
at Finet.util.n.<i nit>(DashoA8443 )
at Finet.util.m.ne wDisplayableRea der(DashoA8443)
at Finet.propertie s.j.initBrokerL ist(DashoA8443)
at Finet.propertie s.ps.run(DashoA 8443)
From somewhere, thereis FME.printExcept ion:Big5


big5 looks to be some chinese character encoding, so i have tried downloading the chinese version of java which also didnt work...clutchin g at straws now...anybody got any ideas please??

cheers
kev

[RedSon]

Internationaliz ation is a tough thing to figure out. It might not be your java version, it might be that the java implementation on the server does not support multiple language. Can you throw together a little Big5 Chinese hello world application to see if you can see Chinese characters? If that works then there is some other issue going on, if it doesn't then that narrows down the possible problems.

[keveaton]

thanks for your reply, much appreciated. however, unfortunately, im not a java coder, just a mere windows tweaker, and all i can do is try to connect with a browser to this site.

[RedSon]

thanks for your reply, much appreciated. however, unfortunately, im not a java coder, just a mere windows tweaker, and all i can do is try to connect with a browser to this site.

Going off of this:

java.io.Unsuppo rtedEncodingExc eption: Big5

I would say that Big5 is not supported, so unless you are a java install tweaker or can try to do things to narrow down the cause by writing little test apps you might be SOL.

[keveaton]

ok, i can do more than just try and get the browser to connect - i can tweak around with anything on the client machine, (and it must be a client problem as i know the feed actually works on another pc on the same connection), but i am out of ideas for that. even if i could write java, the system i am trying to connect to is a stock market trading feed...i doubt they are going to let any tom dick or harry have access to the feed i can code vb and sql, but not at that level.......i wouldnt know where to start.

IMHO, this is a configuration problem with the java install on the client machine....i just dont seem to be able to get it to work no matter what i do....
Do you have any suggestions for non code based solutions? is there anything that can be done with the java install control panel?

thanks again
kev