I have to write a chat client using the Jabber (XMPP) protocol.  This
is to be accessed from a regular java web app by browser users in a
simple manner.  I won't be using java web start at the moment (I may
later).  At the moment I have an invisible Applet (yuk I know) that
connects to the chat server, but because applets virtually always
dispose on page nav, I have to close the connection and reconnect each
time.  I can't serialise the connection, it isn't serialisable.
The invisible applet is just to maintain server connection, and hence
listen for chat requests.  A sequence of dialogues accept or reject a
chat request and when both parties agree a browser window containing
the chat gui applet is created.  Plenty of java chat apps exist like
this, it can't be this hard. What is a good way to do this?  My main
problems stem from the ridiculous disconnect/reconnect, every reconnect
gets old chat request that have already been dealt with (XMPP quirk?)
Any advice welcome

Mike W