We are renting a Windows root server at Serverloft. Recently, when the server restarted after installing regular Microsoft updates, it restarted properly, but couldn't be accessed anymore, and a Linux server was answering instead!
After convincing the hotline that this was not our mistake (which took some time), they found out that some other server in the same subnet somehow (they didn't explain how) "stole" the public IP of our server (or rather "took precedence").
They disconnected the "thief", and for a short period of time we could see our server again. Then, without restart, it happened again! After another hour or so our server was back.
Question: does this make sense (we are simple developers who don't really know)? And is it possible to prevent such a scenario? Or can anyone in a typical hosting environment simply "steal" another IP, provided s/he knows how to do this?