Steam must be running to play this game - AlterMW3

i downloaded the mw3 dedicated server tool from steam and put the altermw3 files in there. i could play without a problem till today. now im getting
steam must be running to play this game error . they are moving their website to another server so i cant post on their website ...and yeah. this is happening even when the server
is online

Well, you're probably banned..

As this forum is well aware; errors = ban.