Love it — turning this into a blog is a great idea 👍

I’ll write it clean, structured, and copy-paste ready.

You can publish this directly as a guide.

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🚀 Deploying Socket.io with FastPanel + Nginx Reverse Proxy + Cloudflare

Complete production setup guide

This guide explains how to deploy a Node.js Socket.io server on a FastPanel VPS and expose it securely using:

• FastPanel reverse proxy

• Nginx WebSocket upgrade

• Cloudflare SSL

• Subdomain routing

Final result:

willcart.in → CodeIgniter (main app)
socket.willcart.in → Node Socket Server

Both run independently.

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📌 Architecture Overview

Browser (HTTPS / WSS)
   ↓
Cloudflare
   ↓
FastPanel nginx reverse proxy
   ↓
Node socket server (port 3000)

Node runs internally on HTTP.
SSL is handled by nginx + Cloudflare.

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✅ Step 1 — Create socket subdomain in FastPanel

Open FastPanel:

Websites → Add Website

Choose template:

👉 Reverse proxy

Domain:

socket.willcart.in

IP:

your server IP

Save.

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✅ Step 2 — Configure reverse proxy backend

Open:

socket.willcart.in → Settings → Backend

Add backend:

Type: host
Address: http://127.0.0.1:3000

Save.

This forwards traffic to Node server running on port 3000.

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✅ Step 3 — Enable SSL

Open:

socket.willcart.in → HTTPS

Enable:

👉 Let’s Encrypt SSL

Now your socket server is accessible via:

https://socket.willcart.in

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✅ Step 4 — Fix CORS in Socket.io

Without this, browser blocks cross-domain requests.

Edit Node server:

❌ Old

var io = require('socket.io')(http);

✅ Replace with

var io = require('socket.io')(http, {
  cors: {
    origin: ["https://willcart.in"],
    methods: ["GET", "POST"],
    credentials: true
  }
});

Restart Node:

pm2 restart all

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✅ Step 5 — Enable WebSocket upgrade in nginx

FastPanel does not always enable WebSocket headers automatically.

Open nginx config:

nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/socket.willcart.in.conf

Find proxy block:

location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
}

Replace with:

location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;

    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
}

Also update fallback block:

location @fallback {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;

    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
}

Reload nginx:

nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx

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✅ Step 6 — Frontend connection

Use HTTPS socket endpoint:

const socket = io("https://socket.willcart.in", {
  transports: ["websocket"]
});

Never expose port 3000 publicly.

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✅ Step 7 — Test

Open browser console:

Connected!

If you see this, setup is complete.

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🎯 Common errors and fixes

CORS error

blocked by CORS policy

👉 Fix Step 4

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WebSocket connection failed

wss://... failed

👉 Fix Step 5

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ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE

Trying to access:

:3000

Port is private. Use domain only.

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🛡 Production best practices

Recommended improvements:

• Use PM2 cluster mode

• Enable auto restart

• Add JWT socket authentication

• Add rate limiting

• Monitor memory usage

• Enable Cloudflare WebSocket support

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✅ Final working setup

Main site:
https://willcart.in

Socket server:
https://socket.willcart.in

Both run independently without conflict.