nopCom 3.1 guest checkout empty cart issue (I see problem, but need help to resolve)

Hi all,
My nopCom 3.1 guest checkout shows an empty cart , after a guest tries to add 1 or more items.
I saw a few others have had this problem but in previous versions, now my users are seeing this on my nopCom 3.1 site (recently published online).

PROBLEM: As guests pick items for their cart, and continue to shop, the top ribbon shows X items, however when you hover over or click to go to the cart, you get: "The cart is empty"

So guests cannot buy anything :(

I did some analysis on my own localhost ... using VS 2012 and SQL 2012 on my DEV machine:
I see the guest get 1 entry in CUSTOMERS table (Id) and if I choose 1 product, then the guest gets an associated entry (with CustomerId) on SHOPPINGCART table. This looks GOOD.

However, when I publish the SAME code to my provider (discount.asp) , and do the SAME thing, there is a different result:
I see the guest gets "7" entries in CUSTOMERS table (i.e. 7 rows added with all new consecutive Id's) and if I choose 1 product, then they get an associated entry in SHOPPINGCART table (with CustomerId which ends up matching 1 of the 7 Id's just created in CUSTOMER table) . So This is DIFFERENT behavior from what I see on my DEV machine.

My guess is that when you click to see CART, it probably picks up one of the wrong/extra Id's in CUSTOMERS table and cannot find the matching entry in the SHOPPINGCART table, so you get a EMPTY CART.

Any ideas on how to fix? or what is going on?
Any help would be very appreciated!!

Thanks
James

Could be SSL problem
or, maybe a machine key problem (search the forums for "machine key")