JSF: NullPointerException at FacesServlet.init line 144 / Can’t parse faces-config.xml – SocketException

Problem When deploying JSF 1.1 application to WebSphere 6.0 I got the following not much helpful exception: java.lang.NullPointerException at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.init(FacesServlet.java:144) Checking SystemErr.log revealed the following explanation: javax.faces.FacesException: Can’t parse configuration file:file:/usr/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/profileNode1/installedApps/a25ciwas005Network/jholy-GroovyConsole_temp.ear/GroovyConsole.war/WEB-INF/faces-config.xml…Caused by: java.net.SocketException: Connection timed out:could be due to invalid address The explanation is that the XML parser cannot access http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-facesconfig_1_1.dtd referenced from the config