A few weeks ago my internet modem died, and was replaced. Now I am unable to use Javascript to access the crossword puzzles on the Sydney Morning Herald website. Instead, a message appears saying that the computer does not support Javascript or it has been disabled. In an attempt to fix this problem I uninstalled Java, but cannot find where to download and reinstall the Java program from the internet. Another computer on my home network does not have any problems with the crossword website. The computer is running Windows Vista Home Premium.

assume that you are trying to access the crosswords on the following website: www.smh.com.au/entertainment/puzzles/free.html . After checking this website myself, it definitely does use Java and I also received a similar message (as I do not have Java installed on my main test computer). However, we need to make a quick distinction here before going any further. You first talk about Javascript in your question and then move onto talking about Java. These are two completely separate things. Javascript is a scripting language which can be used in websites to dynamically generate content. Javascript is code included in the HTML source code of a website, and all web browsers (well, all the main ones such as Internet Explorer and Firefox) fully support Javascript. In contrast, Java is a programming language which allows developers to make Java applets, amongst other things, which essentially are programs that can be included in websites.

The Sydney Morning Herald crossword website uses Java applets for displaying the crossword puzzles, as opposed to Javascript. While Javascript support is built into most web browsers, to use Java you need to download the runtime environment (which is a plug-in for the web browser, allowing it to run Java applets). I am unsure why this would have stopped working since your modem was replaced, and the fact that it works on a different computer on the same network indicates this is not a network related problem but is instead computer specific. Furthermore, as you uninstalled the Java runtime environment from your computer this would not have assisted the situation either. Therefore, the first order of business is to reinstall Java on the computer.

The Java runtime can be a bit tricky to find on the Java website, but you can download and install Java from the following address: www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp. At this website click the large “Free Java Download” button. This will download and install Java on your computer, theoretically allowing you to access the crossword puzzles again. Should this not work, you may wish to try a different internet browser. I assume that you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer at the moment. I have found that occasionally Internet Explorer can be a bit unreliable when rendering Java applets, and Mozilla Firefox is more reliable. As such, you may wish to try downloading and installing Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox) to see whether this resolves the problem. Be aware, occasionally the Java installation you completed for Internet Explorer may not transfer to Mozilla Firefox. As such, you may need to revisit the Java download site in Firefox and download Java again to make this work correctly within Firefox.