JRE release : 1.6.0-b99
Nightly Bundles location :
/net/sqesvr-nfs/global/nfs/deployment5/pit_builds or
/net/dig-dug.east/bigtmp/deployment/1.6.0/nightly/

Problem Description:
Applets are failing to load from our secured webserver by throwing the following exception using 1.6.0 nightly build. Same set of applets(under HTTPS testuite), passed with promoted 1.5.0,1.5.0_03 and 1.6.0 builds(problem is noticed mainly with applets having applet/servlet communication)

java.lang.NullPointerException
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getOutputStream(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getOutputStream(Unknown Source)

I tried running the applets after setting the trace level 5 and noticed following additional exception messages :

java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 405 for URL: https://sqe-jpi-01.sfbay.sun.com:8443/servlet/FilePost2_S
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.HttpUtils.followRedirects(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.BasicHttpRequest.doRequest(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.BasicHttpRequest.doRequest(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.BasicHttpRequest.doGetRequest(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadManager.actionDownload(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadManager.getCacheEntry(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadManager.getResourceCacheEntry(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadManager.getResourceCacheEntry(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.net.DownloadEngine.getCachedFile(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.deploy.cache.DeployCacheHandler$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at com.sun.deploy.cache.DeployCacheHandler.get(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getOutputStream(Unknown Source)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getOutputStream(Unknown Source)



Try loading the following applets and if you notice the above mentioned exceptions getting thrown on Java console then the bug is reproduced :
https://sqe-jpi-01.sfbay.sun.com:8443/tests/https/pluginhtml-default/FilePost1.html
https://sqe-jpi-01.sfbay.sun.com:8443/tests/https/pluginhtml-default/FilePost.html
https://sqe-jpi-01.sfbay.sun.com:8443/tests/https/pluginhtml-default/FilePost2.html
https://sqe-jpi-01.sfbay.sun.com:8443/tests/https/pluginhtml-default/FilePost3.html

http://sqe-jpi-01.sfbay.sun.com:8080/tests/https/pluginhtml-default/FilePost1.html
http://sqe-jpi-01.sfbay.sun.com:8080/tests/https/pluginhtml-default/FilePost2.html


###@###.### 2005-2-23 00:40:29 GMT
###@###.### 2005-2-23 00:45:02 GMT