Server network interface problem?

[Carlos Kamtha]

Hello, 

I recently had a problem with an NFS server running:

FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE #0

It suddenly was not reachable from the network. A closer look on the console revealed that the
interface was still marked as "active" and the server was able to ping itself, but not the gateway. 

While in this state, I was not able to ssh to the client machines that use mount points on the
NFS server in question. 

To solve this problem, i plugged out the network cable and plugged it back in.  This server has been
online for almost a year and never experienced this problem till now. 


I'm wondering 2 things. 

a.) Could this be an issue with the driver on this release for em0? 


b.) Why was I not able to ssh to the client servers while the NFS server was down?


Any clues would be greatly appreciated. 


Thanks!

Carlos.