installed Itunes on laptop..cannot get onto Itunes Store

I recently downloaded itunes onto my laptop, I'm running Vista.
I was able to get onto the itunes store to find some music to purhcase. But for the last 4 days i get a message "Counl not make the Itunes store request. The store may be busy. Check your internet connection or try again later."
My internet connection is ok. And a friend is able to still access the store. i have tried re-installing itunes 8.0. And still cannot get onto the store, via itunes.

any help would be greatly appreciated. i gotta have my music!! 🙂