I've sent a patch to wine-patches some time ago, but it wasn't accepted because it's wrong. The link is http://www.winehq.org/hypermail/wine-patches/2005/03/0504.html
You may try it, it fixes Steam in this aspect, but it may break other apps.
Yes, the patch works for Steam, and fixes this bug, which is marked as blocker.
http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2926
This will allow me to download and install HL2 over the web.
What's wrong with it?