'Simple ping on the port. If responsive, return True, else
return False.
:note We use raw sockets, not ping here, since ping uses ICMP and
has no concept of ports...'

def ping_server(self, port):

    s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    try:
        s.connect(('127.0.0.1', port))
        return True
    except socket.error:
        return False
    finally:
        s.close()
