Plugin Upgrade Automatically Not working

All,

When I click the Plugin’s “Upgrade Automatically” link, it just stays at Downloading Update from http://xxxxxxxxxxx. It does not go any further.

My webserver did not allow uploads, until I changed the wp-config.php file to the following after which it started upgrading.
/*ADDED NEW SECTION FOR FIXING AUTOMATIC UPGRADE*/
if(is_admin()) {
add_filter(‘filesystem_method’, create_function(‘$a’, ‘return “direct”;’ ));
define( ‘FS_CHMOD_DIR’, 0751 );
}

Recently it stopped. I’d tried modifying the .htaccess file, but restored it back. Does that have to do anything with the upgrade?