html - Do I need a server to use HTML5's WebSockets?

Question

When using WebSockets, will I need to write server code? In other words, will the JavaScript in my client application need to connect to a specialized server, or will my existing Apache server work to support this?

Answer 1

The server has to support web sockets. After a first handshake in HTTP, the server and the client open a socket connection. The server must be able to understand and accept this handshake.

In my last project we run quite successfully web socket connections using the last Jetty version.

27/02/2014: Now I'm also implementing websockets under .net with XSockets.net and works like a charm, you don't even need a web server (self hosting). The WebSocket implementation of ASP.NET works also quite good.