Having trouble installing JRE on Debian 4 - etch

I'm having quite a bit of trouble installing the java runtime on debian. I have been looking up instructions on how to install the JRE on a number of different sites, but so far I've been completely unsuccessful. I'm using Iceweasle 2.0.0.8 as my browser.

-- So far, I have downloaded the self-extracting file jre-6u2-linux-i586.bin from java.com.

-- logged in as su

-- gave the user executable permissions

-- ran the install process

-- went to my plugins directory (/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins) and created a symbolic link to libjavaplugin_oji.so

-- closed iceweasle & restarted it

-- Ensured that Java was enabled in iceweasle.

That didn't work, so I went back and checked, and I have a /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins directory, as well as a /usr/lib/iceweasle/plugins directory. I've gone in and created a symbolic link in each of these plugin folders as well, but I still can't get the "verify installation" link on Java.com to work. So, at this point, I'm not even sure which plugins directory I'm suppose to be working in.

Also, I've noticed in a few of the plugins directories that a lot of the *.so files have a matching *.xpt file. My java plugin only has an *.so file, is this possibly part of the issue?

I have also verified that the plugin file that I am linking to has execute permissions.

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.