Crash at TCP connection at start up?

[nuts4re]

I resurrected my Fallout 3 game recently, i have played it through with mods several times over.

 

I have the original version of the game, and it was not updated at all. Pitt and broken were installed with update 1.7 and

 

for no reason i can explain, the game keeps crashing when it pings out to a TCP connection at start up.

 

I am unclear why Fallout sends a ping out, i am not sure if its to validate the game, or for Windows Live to work properly.

 

game has been uninstalled including all the saves ( 3 years worth) to start over, and the new vanilla install still crashes at the start-up TCP connection point.

 

i used "search" but could not find any threads that specifically addressed my issue.

 

 

i will apologize in advance if this topic has been already covered.

 

Any advice would be great, i want to start a new game with mods from the beginning again.

 

i am stumped as to why its crashing during the " ping" test.

 

Thank You.