Can't access node.js webserver with godaddy shared hosting URL

Question

When I enter www.example.com:3000 in the browser, I receive this error (where 'example' is the name of my domain)

This site can't be reached - www.example.com took too long to respond.

I have done these things:

1. Installed node.js on my GoDaddy shared account
2. Created a folder ../public_html/testsite
3. Placed two files in that folder: app.js and .htaccess.
4. Start webserver with: node app.js
5. Go to browser and enter my domain's URL and port:
6. Receive the error message above

This post is very helpful, but I still cannot get my set up to work.

These two files are in ../public_html/testsite/

.htaccess
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^index.html.var$ http://www.example.com:3000/$1 [L,P,QSA]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com:3000/$1 [P,L]

Note: index.html is the file that normally loads when you visit here

The app.js:

const http = require('http');

const hostname= '127.0.0.1';
const port = 3000;

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.statusCode = 200;
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
  res.end('NodeJS server running on Shared Hosting\n');
});

server.listen(port, hostname, () => {
  console.log('Server running at http://' + hostname + ':' + port + '/');
});

To start the webserver:

> cd ../public_html/testsite
> node app.js
Server running at http://127.0.0.1:3000

In browser, I enter:

www.example.com:3000

I expected to see, in the browser

NodeJS server running on Shared Hosting

Questions:

1. Should I use my own godaddy domain address for hostname in .htaccess or should it be localhost?
2. Is the idea to redirect www.example.com:3000 (in browser) to http://localhost:3000 (on GoDaddy server)?
3. I've tried all sorts of permutations (using my ip address or domain name, different port numbers, etc.)
4. I think I am close, but need a few ideas to try!

Answer 1

Port 3000, 8080, and the likes are normally used for development purposes, as in development in can be useful to have several servers running at the same time, for example one on port 3000, one on port 3001, etc.

However, on the internet, HTTP is served on port 80 and HTTPS is served on port 443. So basically, in your server implementation, you should set the port dynamically: it must not be the same whether you're running in production and in development!

I personally use the fact that on my production environment (ie for you, GoDaddy's deployment machines), the environment variable PORT is already set to 80, whereas on my local machine I don't set it, so I can write this:

const express = require('express');
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000; // 3000 on my machine, 80 on GoDaddy's server
const app = express();
app.listen(port, () => console.log(`App listening on port ${port}`));

And I access the server at these URLs:

http://localhost:3000/
http://example.com:80/
http://example.com/

The last two are the same because, as previously said, default HTTP port is 80.