membership.createuser method times out

I have a asp.net application hosted on an external server. I use .Net membership provider to create users for my website. It was working fine till last week and it throws time out elapsed exception now when membership.createuser() method is called.No code change was done on this. Any help as in how to debug this will help. I have other methods from membership class and they seem to work fine with no issues. So i am not sure if this is a connection issue. Below is the error message I receive. Right now there is a total 429 users registered in the website.

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

Source Error:

    Line 34: 
    Line 35:         If ddlRoles.SelectedItem.Text = "Vendor" Then
    Line 36:             Membership.CreateUser(hfLoginName.Value.ToString, txbPassword.Text,      txbEmail.Text, "not set", txbPassword.Text, True, result)
   Line 37:         Else
   Line 38:             Membership.CreateUser(txbLoginName.Text, txbPassword.Text, txbEmail.Text, "not set", txbPassword.Text, True, result)


Source File: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Merchandising\siteAdmin\mCreateUser.aspx.vb    Line: 36 

Stack Trace: 


    [SqlException (0x80131904): Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.]
       System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) +4846647
      System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj) +194
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadSniError(TdsParserStateObject stateObj, UInt32 error) +527
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadSni(DbAsyncResult asyncResult, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) +359
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadNetworkPacket() +88
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadBuffer() +39
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadByte() +20
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) +107
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString) +204
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async) +954
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result) +162
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNonQuery(DbAsyncResult result, String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe) +175
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery() +137
   System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider.CreateUser(String username, String password, String email, String passwordQuestion, String passwordAnswer, Boolean isApproved, Object providerUserKey, MembershipCreateStatus& status) +2430
   System.Web.Security.Membership.CreateUser(String username, String password, String email, String passwordQuestion, String passwordAnswer, Boolean isApproved, Object providerUserKey, MembershipCreateStatus& status) +224
   System.Web.Security.Membership.CreateUser(String username, String password, String email, String passwordQuestion, String passwordAnswer, Boolean isApproved, MembershipCreateStatus& status) +28
   siteAdmin_mCreateUser.btnCreateUser_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Merchandising\siteAdmin\mCreateUser.aspx.vb:36
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e) +111
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +110
      System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +10
   System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +13
   System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) +36
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +1565