The iTunes Store blocked by ATT?

Question

I try to install the twitter app twitterrific in twitter.com. But I found I can't access to phobos.apple.com. Then I do a tracert to that ip and found it seemed it is ATT blocked my request. See tracert result below:
8 13 ms 23 ms 15 ms 210.13.64.9
9 38 ms 120 ms 49 ms 218.105.6.102
10 39 ms 59 ms 37 ms 218.105.5.110
11 49 ms 44 ms 38 ms 210.52.132.234
12 118 ms 117 ms 52 ms 210.53.126.10
13 264 ms 234 ms 262 ms 12.118.130.5
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 223 ms 241 ms 329 ms 12.122.137.77
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.
Trace complete.
Could any guy in apple give an answer?

Answer 1

Even if Apple technicians answered here, which they don't, they couldn't help you with an block by AT&T or any other ISP. You need to talk to AT&T if they're indeed blocking the access for some reason. Note, though, that a failure of a trace doesn't necessarily mean that the connection is blocked for anything other than the trace; many organizations for security reasons block traces, pings, port scans and other probes. Apple uses a distributed server network run by another company to handle the load of the iTunes Store and I don't believe any of that network can be scanned.
More likely your connection problem stems from some firewall or privacy filter, on your system or on your network (such as in a router), though it could be a temporary problem with your ISP (which happens from time to time).