IPod touch failed set-up via USB - please help?

Question

NB - this is not related to my Mac computer. I am connecting an iPod touch 4th generation to a Windows machine running XP (SP3).
The iPod is new and I can't get it to set up via USB connection to computer running iTunes (I have mobile broadband, and it isn't a wireless connection). I have tried the minimum, older version of iTunes and the most up-to-date version.
On connection, both the iPod and iTunes acknowledge each other and the iPod charges. It says "connected to iTunes", but does nothing further. Once the screen saver blanks the screen, it simply shows "connect to iTunes" again, clearly part of the set-up process, when I re-activate the screen.
In iTunes, the iPod Touch comes up under "Devices" at the left-hand side of the iTunes display, but I can't click on it to reveal anything about the iPod - nothing happens. At the same time, a progress bar appears at the tope of hte window saying, "accessing iTunes store" (I'm assuming this must be part of the set-up process?!), but it never completes. Sometimes, I get an error message telling me I have no active internet connection (the connection IS active, but I have also emailed my service provider in case this is relevent), but mostly it just hangs - in short, I can't do anything.
I can't tell you which version of the iOS the iPod is running, because - you've guessed it - it will only run its set-up procedure, and that's not completing, so I can't find out anything about it...
So disappointed, and very dispirited after spending days on this and getting nowhere. Apple has not responded to a service request thus far.
Desperate to get this sorted out, because the whole point of finally getting an iPod (which everyone told me would be so simple to set up and use) is because I'm doing a really big charity walk in a couple of weeks - that, and the training walks, are really long (next one, tomorrow, is seven hours), and doing them without music is soul-destroying.
If you can help, I'd be grateful beyond words.
Thanks for reading,
Sheri.

Answer 1

Why do Apple not respond to correctly initiated support requests?
This is taking weeks to fix on my own - that is *crazy* in this day and age. Here is an update. Sorry it's long, but it's in case it helps anyone else. I tried *everything*.
What did it in the end was a tiny - REALLY tiny - thing, but I suspect it wouldn't have worked if not in combination with several other things.
It's a setting in internet explorer, which I use rarely if ever, but a friend (i.e. a stroke of luck that he was around) pointed out that iTunes uses it in the background to work properly, and it's a security setting in the "Advanced" tab of the "Internet options" bit of IE. You need to UNtick the box for "Check server's certificate revocation". Which suggests that, before doing this, iTunes was going into an endless loop of checking. Not sure about that, but anyway - it worked in terms of getting the oPod recognised and set up (but see later in the post for the current situation). BUT... before that, I'd had to:-
1. via my firewall, open two ports (80 and 443) needed by iTunes (I think this was key as well, actually - why on earth doesn't this sort of support come with the kit?)
2. uninstall latest iTunes and revert to a previous version (may or may not have been necessary, but seemed logical especially as the iPod's iOS wouldn't be up-to-date) - that needed doing twice, as the first version I tried was *too* early for a 4th generation touch
3. flush the resolver cache several times, and various other command-line actions
4. try all connecting and communicating in different orders (e.g. trying to authenticate iTunes *first*, before connecting iPod) - but now I've seen the set-up process once through in its entirety, it's become *so* obvious that none of that was working, so it's partly my inexperience with iPods which made it take so long to find the solution
5. try to set it up via the iTunes website instead (fail!)
6. test secure site (https) access and inputting various server addresses to see if my firewall or mobile broadband provider was blocking them
7. attempt connection with various parts of virus protection and firewall disabled, and even disable the entire firewall
Not to mention endless emails and discussion forum contributions, reading and tweaking, all the re-boots...
CURRENT SITUATION
Lots of aspects working, but as soon as I ask the iPod to do anything internet related (use Safari, access App Store, etc - or even just sign in), it returns the message, "Cannot connect to iTunes store" - despite being connected by a cable to a computer which IS connected to the internet and IS running iTunes, IS accessing the store, HAS synced with and updated the iPod...
Absolutely NOTHING in Apple "support" discussions/documents makes any difference, and is almost exclusively aimed at those connecting wirelessly anyway (so lots of stuff about routers, DNS settings, etc.); wireless is not an option oopen to me.
Unbelievable.
Any suggestions which don't just point me to an Apple support document would be very welcome, because I think I have read them all...