Ok Skaught, the simplest solution in your case is to simply install and run your appplication as root. It isn't more dangerous than running an application under XP, where you are more or less admin, too. If you trust the author/web page of that program, that the application is free from malware and virusses, than there's no problem. The chance that some strange bug in wine might accidentally wipe you hard disk, is astronomically low, as long as you are not trying to use windows defrag tools etc. Of course you should be careful with operations like deleting files, that would be as dangerous as in XP, but there's no need to panic. the second best solution may be to "cd" as root into the directory, where the ping executable lies, "chmod +s ping". That risk is also limited, if somebody hacked your linux, then the fact that the intruder will be able to ping as root will not really worsen your situation anymore.
