it was assigned a static IP from day one of being setup. All of my servers are. turns out, I think it was a DHCP issue. Somebody adjusted one of the ranges so that it overlapped the ip of that server... On top of that, the reservation I had set(just in case) was removed as well. So another machine got that IP and caused no end of confusion... I fixed the dhcp ranges and the issue seems to have went away. No, I did not kill the guy that did it, yet.
Treat stressful situations like a dog, if you can't eat it, play with it or screw it, then just piss on it and walk away. Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow.