Creating a steam account

[greenlig]

hey guys,
ive looked around these forums and have fond that people are having problems connectng to steam when they hae an existing account, but i cant even get an account! i installed HL2 from the 5 cd's it came with( AU version) and then when installed it came up with this screen asking me to either create a new account or to use an existing one.

 

[greenlig]

adn when i go to create a new account, it doesnt work! it says "operation cannot be completed when steam is in offline mode"

This was the first dialogue to come up after installing hl2, and i have followed it closely and my internet connection is fine and i dont have any firewall or anything.

and if i go through with the account creation after the offline message, it comes up with this(attached image)

Whats the go??

reagrds
zac

 

[greenlig]

this is really irritating as i have paid $90 for this frigging game and i cant even play it 30+ hours after installing it!!!

Could someone PM me or something or reply here asap because i really want to play this game!!

thanks in advance.
zac