java loads veeerrrrryyyyy slooowwww

Whenever i start an application in Firefox (v1.0.4) that uses java
(recently updated) it takes several minutes before it actually starts
working. All this time i see the rotating Sun animation. When i do the
same in IE it only takes a few seconds for the thing to start. What do i
have to do to fix this. I really don't want to use IE but im kinda forced
to right now.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Rudi