From the Tools menu, select Internet Options... and then the Security panel. Ordinarily, the Analog website will be assigned to the Internet web content zone with a security level of "Medium". JavaScript can only be disabled using a Custom security configuration. To enable JavaScript first click "Custom Level..." and then "Enable Active Scripting", located within the "Scripting" section of the Custom Level window.

If the security level is set to "High", some key features - such as Active Scripting, Scripting of Active X controls and Java applet scripting - may be disabled. The symptom of the last two being disabled is the somewhat obtuse error alert "An ActiveX control on this page is not safe..." displayed over a running applet. See also the diagnostic display in the "General" section above; if some of the text is yellow instead of nominal green, script-Java connectivity may be a problem. These features can be manually enabled (while leaving all other security settings at High) by clicking "Custom Level", resetting the configuration to "High security", and then enabling just JavaScript ("Active Scripting" set to "Enable"), "Script ActiveX Controls Marked Safe for Scripting" (in the "ActiveX controls..." section) and "Scripting of Java Applets" (in the "Scripting" section). You may also need to specifically enable Java applets ( Advanced:Java(Sun)-Use JRE... ).

If Java itself doesn't work there are two main causes: 1) that it was never installed or 2) that it has been disabled. Java can be disabled by means of a Custom Security configuration. To enable Java, select "High safety" from the "Microsoft VM : Java Permissions" section of Custom Security settings. The symptom is the same error alert "An ActiveX control on this page is not safe..." mentioned above, except in this case the applet does not run.

If there is no "Microsoft VM" section under Custom settings, Java is not installed and this can be confirmed by checking the Advanced panel, which will also have no "Microsoft VM" section. The symptom in this case is a broken plug-in icon in a gray box where the applet should be. Although you may see a dialog offering to download Microsoft's version of Java it is no longer available from Microsoft's website and you should consider installing Sun Microsystem's Java 2 plug-in instead (about an 8MB download); see the instructions below.

Netscape and Mozilla (Suite) browsers are no longer officially supported; users should consider upgrading to Firefox 2+ for compatibility and security reasons.

Enabling Java and JavaScript - Edit: Preferences: Advanced

From the Edit menu, select Preferences... and then the "Advanced" category. For Netscape 8, Java can still be enabled or disabled at the top level, but to enable/disable JavaScript one must click on the subcategory "Scripts & Plugins". "Enable native object scripting" should also be checked (next to "Enable Java"). Java, JavaScript and native object scripting should be enabled for maximum compatibility with Analog Devices tools. It is not necessary to enable JavaScript for Mail & Newsgroups.

The default ("Recommended") download installation of Netscape 8 does NOT include Java, which must be downloaded and installed separately. Selecting the "Full" Netscape 8 installation option DOES include Java.

Macintosh browsers are not supported, however, the most recent versions (such as Safari 3 or Firefox 2 with Java 1.5) should work for most tools.

Analog's Java-based tools first try to use whatever Java Run Time is the default for the browser. If that is unavailable, they expressly try to use a plug-in Java Virtual Machine (JVM). If no Java intepreter is found, recent versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla and Opera should prompt for Java installation. Unfortunately, IE may try to install its own "Microsoft Virtual Machine" (MVM), which is no longer supported by or available from Microsoft. If automatic Java installation doesn't work, the plug-in can be downloaded and installed from Sun's plug-in site. Follow the instructions given in the installation process.

For IE6+, Firefox and Mozilla, the Java Plug-in Control Panel allows you to choose the default java interpreter for your browser (under "Advanced: Default Java for browsers"), and even which version to use if you happen to have multiple versions installed (under "Java: Java Applet/Application Runtime Settings").

SPECIAL NOTE: Startup performance with the Sun plug-in and Windows
On Firefox Windows systems the Sun plug-in can exhibit lengthy startup times. This seems to be related to proxies and domain resolution issues and can be worked around by disabling NetBIOS if it is not needed by the client system. From the Networking control panel, Local Area Connection, select:
General : Properties : Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) : Properties : Advanced : WINS and choose "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP", then click "Accept", close the control panel and relaunch any open browsers.

Special requirements for Sun Java plug-in use:

Internet Explorer 4-7
Under Security, "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins" must be enabled, as should "Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting". These settings are automatically enabled when "Medium" or "Low" security is selected. "High" security settings will need to be customized (see above). To use the plug-in for all applets, "Use Java 2..." must be checked under "Java (Sun)" in the Advanced panel.

Other Browsers User of non-Microsoft browsers may require setting "-DtrustProxy=true" in the Java Runtime Parameters, located within the "Java Runtime Versions" pop-up window of the "Java : Java Applet/Application Runtime Settings" panel of the Sun Java Control Panel.