WebSocket over SSL: Cloudflare

Question

I have a website behind cloudflare. I need to enable websockets over SSL without turning off cloudflare support. I have a PRO plan and hence won't get the new websocket support. I am using Nginx to proxy a SSL connection to a web socket running on a node server. Now, I read somewhere that cloudflare could work with approved ports would support websockets. Hence, I'm using 8443 for the Nginx port and another port for the node server. Using wscat it returns a 200 error.

$ wscat -c wss://xyz.com:8443
error: Error: unexpected server response (200)

I know that the websocket is expecting a 101 code. However, if I visit https://xyz.com:8443 , I can see the page displayed by the node server telling me proxy is working. Also, once I turn off cloudflare support, the websocket starts working. Any clues to get this working. I know I can create a subdomain but I'd prefer running the websocket behind cloudflare.

Answer 1

If you're trying to access this through CloudFlare's network you'd need to explicitly have web sockets enabled on your domain before they will work -- regardless of the port. As in, even if the port can pass through our network, that won't automatically mean that web sockets will be enabled or accessible on your domain.

You can try contacting our support team to request an exception to see if they can enable it for your domain, but typically this is still only available at the business and enterprise levels.

Disclaimer: I work at CloudFlare.