Added the suggested code. No code or status messages are displayed by the application.
In IE8 the message "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" is sometimes returned, although it may also return a new (reset) Product Add page.
Firefox 3.5.2 displays a message "The connection was reset" or returns a blank page.
After further testing I found something that may or may not help. As stated initially, I successfully inserted Categories in Admin. When I hover the mouse pointer over the "Add this category" button on the "Add/Edit Categories page", the full path appears at the bottom of IE8, i.e.,
"http://localhost:21000/Footprints_V2R3/Admin/productcategories_Results.php". However, when I hover over the "Finish" button for adding a product, only
"Products_Insert.php" is displayed. Is it possible the product insert does not have $WAGLOBAL_Root_URL prepending the file name?