As you suspect this isn't really Foxweb-specific, I have run into some of the same issues you are talking about though so I might be able to help.

 

As far as your Mac problems, the only way to avoid this is to be sure the site is thoroughly tested using all of the available browsers on the Mac.  The only way to do this really is to invest in a Mac which you can set aside as a QA machine, so if you're the owner of the site it's a question of the cost versus benefit for you.

 

It wouldn't be a question of Mac users in general, but Mac users with specific browsers and versions of browsers on the Mac.  For example I've had problems come up frequently with Mac users using Netscape 4.x .  It can get very complicated;  at one point we were getting frequent cookie problems with not only specific versions of IE (on Windows machines) but with specific downloads of specific versions.  MS changed the default cookie security settings at various points in time and some defaults would work and others wouldn't.  The defaults were slightly different for people who were downloading it for the first time versus people who were upgrading from an older version.

 

As far as somebody who has cookies disabled, there is basically nothing you can do for that.  I have never seen a production shopping cart that doesn't require cookies.  The reasons why get a little involved, but to make a long story short it is absolutely necessary for secure shopping.

 

One thing I would suggest strongly though:  if I try to check out on your page with cookies turned off, I am taken to a page that just says "shopping cart empty".  This is very confusing for a potential customer who has cookies turned off and doesn't realize it's a problem.

 

Checking whether the cookie has been set, and if not displaying some kind of an error message, is a better idea.  Here

 

 

is a test page, if you know how to turn off cookies, turn them off and try to check out, you will see what I mean.