@ Surya
I an unable to replicate this the “An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this server’s configuration…” I wouldn’t have released 8.1 if this was happening. I think this must only be effecting a very small number of users because with the thousands that have updated only a few reported the issue. I would think it would be far more people if this was a widespread issue.
Any way … I am really certain I know where in the WordPress code this error comes from. What I do not know is why Connections would cause it because it has zero points of integration with WordPress on this page.
The only way I can solve this is someone, like hopefully you, can give me admin and FTP access temporarily so I can figure out why this would happen. Can you give me this access.