ubuntu server 9.04 nics not visible only lo loopback under ifconfig

hi i have a problem with a 9.04 server deploy, i have two nics and both are now not visible after the server had been off for a month. the client had turned it off as they were moving and now when we boot up the nics are not seen under an ifconfig command, only the lo is listed.

i will have to check on monday to see wheter a sudo lshw -class network will show the nics as being there from a hardware perspective.

i do know the following:

• working prior to turning it off
• we had inet static for our ifaces file so they were hard coded to the ip's
• restarting the unit did not make a difference
• leds on the nic light up when an ethernet cable is plugged into it and then into a switch

we have not tried doing an ifconfig eth0 or eth1 up command yet, i have to wait for the client to get back onsite so that i can walk him through doing this over the phone.

does anyone have any idea why all of a sudden the nics, they are both intel based gig e ethernet, would just not show up anymore with their respective ip address based on the ifaces file? we did verify that the ifaces file has not changed, so i don't think it is anything with that.

thanks.