Can't connect (via ssh) after a restart

[Craig Hagerman]

I have a problem with a Ubuntu box that I can't figure out.

Two days ago I was connected to a remote Ubuntu machine via ssh. I was
also looking at mythweb on that machine in a browser. I did something
in mythweb (tried to delete a program I think), and it did a seg
fault. This has happened before. I just have to kill the process and
restart. However, back in the terminal (ssh) I see some error message
scrolling by, being repeated every 100th of a second. It had the
machine locked up so that I can't give it any commands to kill the
process or do anything.

So I gave my brother a call (he is there, I am thousands of miles
away) and asked him to hit "reset" on the computer to kill the process
and restart the machine. He did so. But ever since I have not been
able to get in. I got him to hit the reset button twice, and after
that twice had him hit the power button to completely turn the
computer off and then turn it back on again. I KNOW that the machine
is up and running because I have a script set to fire off a little
message to my home server to tell me it is up and running and the
current IP address. THOSE messages still come through every hour.
However, when I try to ssh in I get "connection refused" messages. I
have logged into the router on that remote system and port 22 IS still
being forwarded to the correct machine.

So.... the computer is up and running, the webserver is working OK (I
can see a place-holder web page I made), it is connected to the local
network and internet OK (since it is able to send out hourly
messages)... but for some strange reason I can no longer ssh in.
(note the ubuntu machine is headless - no keyboard, no mouse, no monitor.)

Does anyone have any ideas what may have happened here? I have never
heard of a service just simply disappearing on a restart. I did do an
apt-get update (or maybe upgrade) sometime before, but I doubt this
would affect sshd. I am at my wit's end trying to figure out what has
happened and how to get in contact with the machine again. (My brother
is completely useless around computers, so he will be no help.)

Craig