restore iphone 3g

ok so iv restored my iphone twice before and had to do it again today. i plugged it in and hit restore and it did everything right up until it said waiting for iphone. i entered my pin and itunes tried to connect to the store i presume to validate the phone. After a while i got a message saying that the connection to the server timed out and to check my network settings and try again. every other network connection is working, local network, wifi, mail is working, safari is working everything. even the normal itunes store where i can buy music is working. it just wont connect and validate the phone. i even tried it on my vista desktop and the same message comes up. the iphone just displays the itunes logo and a usb cable with an arrow pointing at the logo. can i format the iphone in some way and restart the restore or what can i do... im without a phone
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.5.4)  17" 2.5Ghz 4GB 250GB External WD 250GB Wireless Might Mouse 