For some reason, I can't seem to go "Offline" in the steam installed on my laptop. it works fine on the PC but when i try to run steam offline, i keep getting the error: 
"Could not connect to Steam network. 
This could be due to a problem with your Internet connection, or with the Steam network. 
Please visit yadayadayada.." 
 
WTF ?

Do u have the beta UI installed?

You could hit ctrl+shift+esc and shut it down that way.

Why do you want to run steam in offline mode to begin with? I mean if you don't want it online then why have it running at all?

Are you trying to go offline on your friends list, or the thing at the top right?
 
I think to go offline you might have to restart it, or maybe boot steam up with no net connection, and see how that fairs.

Are you using the "File> Go Offline..." ?

Go online once, then you can go back to being offline. Steam needs to connect from time to time.
Sometimes if my computer crashes and I was online on Steam at the time, the next time I boot up I will need to connect 1st before it can go offline again.

for the reason part: this is simple. i have a laptop, it has steam on it, i don't always have a WiFi or Ethernet around but i still want to play those games (that i bought on steam). going offline will let me do that. 
 
i am hitting the File > Go Offline, then it asks me to restart steam, so i do and then i get that error message. 
 
I do have a WiFi right now (i'm at home...) so i can do Online steam and i do. then i try to go to offline and it doesn't work. 
 
lastly, on my PC, this whole thing works fine. i can go online or offline whenever i want.

Might be better to try Steam tech forums then .