Login using putty to the server IP with uid/pwd, go to root and hit ftp, at the ftp prompt, type the command "open" followed by <IP address> if this shows "connection refused" then it means we are not able to get connected to the server. Solution is at the OS level, one of the services vsftpd is not running because of the server which was abruptly shut down over the weekend . They restarted the service and now my app works fine.

Thanks,

Sandhya