Setting up a websocket on Apache?

Question

So I'm doing some research on websockets, and I have a few questions I can't seem to find a definitive answer for:

• How can I set up a web socket on my Linux server? Is there an Apache module? Would I have to use 3rd-party PHP code or similar?

• Are there any kinds of drawbacks to the method described in question 1 that I should be aware of other than browser compatibility?

• How could I "upgrade" my websocket installation to a secure websocket installation (ws:// to wss://)? Would this be made easier or more difficult if SSL was already set up on my Apache server?

• Is there any language I could use to connect to my web socket other than JavaScript?

• What is the default request method for a web socket?

Answer 1

The new version 2.4 of Apache HTTP Server has a module called mod_proxy_wstunnel which is a websocket proxy.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy_wstunnel.html