Enable WebSockets on Windows Server

Our software heavily depends server-client communication to enable asynchronous information loading, server-driven dashboard refreshes, and real-time fly-in notifications. Depending on the used protocol there may be different performance results.

WebSockets offer a higher degree of interaction between the browser and the server, allowing for more real-time user experiences. However, if WebSockets are not installed and properly configured on your server, our software will default to using "server-sent events". While this method still provides a decent level of interactivity, it's not as efficient as WebSockets and has a limitation of only 5 connections. This can become an issue if users open multiple tabs of our software in their browser.

To overcome this limitation and to ensure the best performance, we recommend installing and configuring WebSockets on your server. This guide will provide you step-by-step instructions on how to do that on your Windows Server.

Here's how you can install and enable WebSockets in Windows Server.

To enable support for the WebSocket Protocol on Windows Server 2012 and above, use the following steps:

1. Open Server Manager.
2. Under the Manage menu, click Add Roles and Features.
3. Select Role-based or Feature-based Installation, and then click Next.
4. Select the appropriate server, (your local server is selected by default), and then click Next.
5. Expand Web Server (IIS) in the Roles tree, then expand Web Server, and then expand Application Development.
6. Select WebSocket Protocol, and then click Next.
7. If no additional features are needed, click Next.
8. Click Install.
9. When the installation completes, click Close to exit the wizard.

You may need to manually enable WebSockets in IIS. However, under typical circumstances, this step should be automatically handled.