How to force a "Java not supported" message

[kellyj]

I posted this first over in the JavaScript section because, well, because I don't know what I'm talking about. They gently redirected me over here.

I am using a ready-made script (it's a Java applet, I'm told) from liveharmony.org that places a chat room onto my web page. I know that some visitors cannot see the chat room (for example, my work computer blocks java, even though I'm using IE6) but I don't really know why (maybe a firewall issue?) Is there a way I can modify the code so that in such cases, a "java not supported" message shows up instead of just a blank space on the page?

Any help I can get, even if it's just to say, "No, you can't do that," would be appreciated. Or a work-around. Thanks.

If you need to look at the page, it is here (http://kelly.jefferson.net/soxforum/chat.htm). The code is:

<!-- begin liveharmony.org chat code -->
<center>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://java-cgi.www.liveharmony.org/cgi-bin/jsgen.cgi?c=redsox&amp;v=2&amp;sv=1&amp;sn=1&amp;g=cglib"></script>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
var lh_params=
[
// *** begin customizable section ***
// *** for more information, see www.liveharmony.org ***
['height', '350'],
['width', '500'],
['bg', 'ffffff'],
['fg', '000000'],
['font', 'sansserif'],
['size', '12'],
['floatnewwindows', 'true'],
['floatincomingprivatewindow', 'true'],
['floatimmediately', 'false'],
['showbuttonpanel', 'true'],
['lurk', 'false'],
['playsounds', 'true'],
['onlyshowchat', 'false'],
['timestamp', 'false'],
['askclienttype', 'true'],
['incomingprivatewindow', 'true'],
['roomprompt', ''],
['roomswidth', '0'],
['colorpanel', 'true'],
['showserverwindow', 'false'],
['showticker', 'false'],
['__generator', 'advanced'],
['__generator_version', '4'],
// *** end customizable section ***
['__blank', 'blank']
];
lh_go(lh_params);
// -->
</script>
<noscript><a href="http://www.liveharmony.org/needjs.html?source=jusr" target="_new">The chat system requires JavaScript. Please use this link to install JavaScript.</a></noscript>
<!-- Please keep this message or a similar link on your chat page -->
<p align="center">
Add free live chat to your page with <a target="_new" href="http://www.liveharmony.org/landing.html?source=jusr">liveHarmony</a>
</p>
</center>
<!-- end liveharmony.org chat code -->

[TheBearMay]

The issue you have is that you're not generating the <applet> tag, they are. Without that control the most you could do, assuming javascript hasn't also been disabled is to write some code to see if the applet existed (document.applets.length > 0 if the only applet on the page) and output a message.

[kellyj]

Too bad. Well, thanks for the feedback. I guess I really should buy a book and learn more about this stuff.