This problem is related to having your computer, Apple device, etc
(from your current physical location) being unable to resolve/connect to
the following site/domain names and their related IP address(s).
The following table is presented to help explain/clarify this issue:
Site/Domain name | IP Address
phobos.apple.com | 17.250.237.43
deimos3.apple.com | 206.169.246.144
albert.apple.com | 17.149.240.64
gs.apple.com | 17.151.36.30
itunes.apple.com | 206.169.246.171
ax.itunes.apple.com | 206.169.246.139
If ANY of these sites/IP address are unresolvable (via PING for example)
then the ability/usability of Apple's iTunes (and the Store) will suffer.
To have yourself verify that (if) you can connect to these sites, you'll
need to open up a MSDOS/Command prompt window
and then type "ping" (without the quotes) and one of the (above) listed sites.
For example you would type the following at your command prompt:
ping phobos.apple.com (then press the return/enter key)
which (should) give you results like this:
pinging phobos.apple.com.akadns.net
http://17.250.237.43 with 32 bytes of data:
Note: Anyt response other than "reply" (like Request timed out)
indicates a problem resolving the site's name to an IP address
and (generally) has NOTHING to do with your (normally functioning) computer
as this is dependent on the ISP (Internet Service Provider) that you are
using to connect to the Internet (like Sprint, Insightbb, etc) with.
The 'key' here is that it's the ISP's responsibility to (properly) resolve
the site's name to (one or more of) Apple's sites.
If (however) Apple (itself) is (currently) experiencing a DDOS attack
(Distributed Denial Of Service) upon one (or more) of it's sites, then THAT
would explain a possible cause of the problem.
However I stress THAT is NOT the problem since I can connect from my Insightbb
(ISP provider) at home but (currently) can not connect at work via their ISP.
This is (also) WHY the "tag" of the FQDNSN (Fully-Qualified DNS Name)
is listed as
http://akadns.net since that is the ISP/Router resolving the DNS name!
I hope that this has helped shed some light as to WHo's problem this REALLY is,
and will help to stop the Apple-User 'finger-pointing' game in it's tracks! 😉
Your's The Lan_Man! 😉
William Cull
Technology Specialist
University of Louisville