What's the point of having UDP in node.js if browsers can't send/receive UDP?

Asked Apr 01 '21 at 09:52

Active Apr 01 '21 at 09:52

Viewed 361 times

It's great that Node.js has the dgram package that enables UDP communication.

But web browsers can't send UDP packets to a server. Web browsers also can't read UDP packets from a server. The only way to use UDP in a web browser is to use webrtc.

So it seems like the only way to really use Node.js+UDP is through purely server side code, communicating from one .js file to another.

It seems like there is no "networking" really going on here, since it's all the data is staying on the server and not being sent to clients. I may as well use an observer or something.

So what's the point of having UDP in Node if I can't send/receive UDP packets in the browser?

asked Apr 01 '21 at 09:52

Null Salad

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Browsers are not the only possible software clients out there. – Robby Cornelissen Apr 01 '21 at 09:55
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You answered your own question. Node is used for more than just server to browser. For example, some folks have written DNS servers in Node.js. DNS is a UDP based protocol. – selbie Apr 01 '21 at 09:55
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Node.js is a general purpose JavaScript implementation, it's not only for writing webserver. – Barmar Apr 01 '21 at 09:57
I see, I suppose I was thinking too narrowly with just server <--> browser communication! – Null Salad Apr 01 '21 at 10:13

What's the point of having UDP in node.js if browsers can't send/receive UDP?

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