UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi Guys. First of all Im not keen on os stuff, thus not sure what I should look for to solve my problem, Thats why Im posting before getting deeper into forums.

Here is my problem. Im working on academic network - Solaris 7-10. Where parts of configuration is made by students (Im still one). Problem is that recently someone created hardening scripts (this is my first point of createing this failure). Im not sure what was modified but:

WHen I run programs in terminal eveything is fine - program can run as root or other special user (like mysql). Problem arrises when it is run in daemon mode.
Snort doesnt read anything from interfaces - or doesnt dump anything to mysql, ntop cant generate gui, tcptrack doesnt write anything to log files.
Furthermore IPSec doesnt forbids sending packets - configuration is read it is validated, but when I start IPSec no packet is sent to second host which is defined as destination in SA.
Has anyone had such experience?
Or does someone know what should I look for in configuration?
(I have this problem on solaris 9 and 10, however no native program - that was in distribution has this problem while running)

1. What do you count as daemon mode?

2. What users do these programs run as in 'daemon mode'? Do they have all the appropriate groups activated in 'daemon mode'? (eg output of 'id' prints a list of groups).

3. How is the environment and umask established in 'daemon mode'?