Applets are client side objects and not really affected by master pages et. al. Maybe you IIS doesn't allow .class files to be loaded (if so, add it to the MIME types in the IIS settings). Try entering the url of the applet into your browser directly and see if you're given access to the file.

Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, I'm not really familiar with IIS yet haha, how would I change those settings so that I could check what you've suggested?  Also, I haven't deployed my program yet, it's just running through the visual studio .net development server, does that share the same settings?  If so it's a bit strange, I have another page that I ran with the .net development server that has an applet that loads just fine.  If you could tell me what I should look for to change I'd appreciate it.  Thanks again.

Regarding IIS

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326965
extension: class
MIME-type: application/x-java-applet

Just make sure that the applet, as it's referenced from your page, is available. Enter its URL into the browsers address bar and see if it can be loaded. 

 Thanks for the response.

 I was actually able to get it working by remaking the project I was using to make the applet without a package declaration.  I guess it was just having trouble finding the file program.class since in Java it is seen as package.program.class.  But thanks for your help I'll be sure to remember this for future reference.  Thanks again.