http.createserver vs net.createserver in node.js

Question

I am having trouble understanding the difference between net.createserver and http.createserver in node.js.

I have read the documentation for both methods located at th

Answer 1

Straight from the Node Net documentation. NET is the basic bare-bones server you can create. It's particularly useful for setting up a cluster of servers and allows simple connections but on that you'll want communication protocols, namely HTTP, which HTTP is in fact a NET server at it's core.

The net module provides an asynchronous network API for creating stream-based TCP or IPC servers (net.createServer()) and clients (net.createConnection()).

And from the HTTP documentation. HTTP is the common way to transmit large sets of data as requested by the client and then a response is generated. It's the standard way of communicating over the internet and introduces the concept of handshakes and is done through REST protocol, you know the usual request and response way of communicating.

The HTTP interfaces in Node.js are designed to support many features of the protocol which have been traditionally difficult to use. In particular, large, possibly chunk-encoded, messages. The interface is careful to never buffer entire requests or responses — the user is able to stream data.

Websockets are an upgrade over the HTTP headers and offer low latency and less server load and are a much more minimal conversation. If you're talking peer to peer communication, that's the way you'll want to go.