Application Cache on iPad works on localhost doesn't work on production server

Question

Problem: On localhost the applicationCache is working in both the iPad simulator and regular safari all the time. On production server I'm getting status = 0 (uncached) on iPad simulator and the actual device but on safari it actually loads the cache correctly the first time but hangs in status = 2 (checking) for subsequent refreshes.

I checked that both my localhost and the production server have the correct manifest MIME type on production server I did the following command to check the MIME type and it was fine:

curl -I http://pathtomyserver/main.manifest -u someusername

(it has a password)

I've been at this for days...would appreciate any help or insight! Thanks so much!