Not able to sign into iTunes 7.6?

Question

Ever since I upgraded to iTunes 7.6, I have not been able to sign into my iTunes account or purchase anything. I am still able to subscribe and get podcasts, though.
When I wasn't able to purchase my song, I tried to sign out and sign back in. That was a big mistake because now I can't sign in at all.
When I try to sign in, it says "Accessing iTunes Store..." for maybe 15 minutes and then I usually get "The network connection was reset" or "iTunes is temporarily unavailable. Try again later."
I'm pretty sure my network connection is fine, becuase my iTunes STORE is working and so is my internet.
I've tried resetting my password, turning off the firewall, turning off the popup blocker, turning TLS 1.0 and SSL 3.0 on, and reinstalling iTunes.
Oh, and this has been going on since around Jan 11, 2008.
Any Suggestions?

Answer 1

I like everyone else here had the same symptoms that began with the installation of iTunes 7.6. Solution listed below.
I tried to
reset my password
reinstall iTunes
reinstall QuickTime by itself
uninstall all pop-up blockers
disable all firewalls
cleared all of my cookies and temp internet files
installed safari
many other ridiculous things as suggested by various message boards and Apple tech support.
I only ever use iTunes on one computer at home. Since this problem I installed it on two additional computers on different networks and experience the same exact problem.
Then I allowed friends that claimed to have updated to 7.6 without issue attempt to log in on any one of my three failing computers. Each friend was able to log in without a hitch.
This tells us that the proble lies with our accounts and not with our networks as Apple has been insisting.
Anyway, here's the fix....
Go to:
http://store.apple.com
click on "Account" near upper right
log in using your appleID and password. Don't do this at a public computer because I don't see a way to log out.
(also I'm guessing that everyone experiencing this problem has an appleID, not a AOL id, and that our appleIDs are simply user names, not email addresses)
Now click on "Change account information"
fill out the form, at which time you are effectively going to be changing your AppleID to your email address.
You may have to update your credit card security code. I don't know if it forces this cuz I did it without being asked.
submit the form.
Go to iTunes and sign in with your new user name (your email address) and you're done.