network privileges of user nobody??? how to configure???

Hi all, I have a question regarding the rights of user nobody. It struck me today, that - after a couple of rpm updates - user nobody has restricted rights to access the outside network. Before the update "ping www.heise.de" as "nobody" gave me the ping of that host. Now, this is no longer the case: "ping: unknown host www.spiegel.de". However, every other user can do the ping. (Network is up, of course!) Where are these things configured? Any help appreciated, Michael