How can I get my itunes to work?

every time I open up itunes it says "Accessing iTunes Store..." and it stays stuck on that forever. I literally can't do anything. It pops up as soon as itunes opens, never succeeds in accessing the store, and will not let me do anything until the popup goes away... which it never does. this is the newest version of itunes. (10.3.whatever or somehting) what can I do to make it functional?