Tarballs aren't files you "install". They're archives which you extract and most usually contain the source code of the application you'd like to use. You'll need to compile this into something actually usable, and for that you will first need to install dependencies, which are programs and libraries that the program you're trying to compile will use (for example, libmpg123 for Wine's MP3 support). Depending on your OS and distribution you might want to get a precompiled package instead, which are usually very easy to install. You still need dependencies, but at least the distro's package manager will take care of those for you. For example, Ubuntu has these instructions: http://www.winehq.org/download/deb If you really insist on compiling Wine yourself, follow these instructions: http://www.winehq.org/docs/wineusr-guide/installing-wine-source By the way, latest wine is 1.1.36. Also, a lot of USB devices won't work in Wine if they don't work in your favourite Linux distro. Wine handles Windows software, not Windows drivers (mostly). Since your problem is with wireless not working, why not look around for help on that? Trying something like getting wireless to work through Wine won't work, after all.
