Web Browser Control For Port Communication

We have a web application which needs to send control codes to hardware connected to computers from the web browser running the web application. We wish to achieve this using a Java Applet. The Java Applet will need to be signed to allow low level access to the computer hardware. The Java Applet should work in two 'modes': 1. Port Identification Mode In our web application we will have a 'port identification' option which is a web page containing a form which the user will need to complete. We wish the user to select the port the hardware is connected to from a drop down list of available ports. The Java Applet should be loaded into this page and will update a form list element with the list of ports on the computer. 2. Port Communication Mode In port communication mode we need to load the Applet in a page and have the ability to supply to it through HTML the port we want to communicate with and the control codes we wish to send to the port. In addition, we need to be able to trigger the communication with javascript through the Java Applet to allow us to decide when to send the codes. This is an urgent project, we would like to have this service delivered within the next two weeks.