Build log: shipping a real-time video app with WebRTC & Socket.io
What I learned wiring up signaling, ICE servers and connection recovery for MeetSpace — the unsexy parts of real-time.
WebRTC is one of those technologies that feels like magic for the first ten minutes and like quicksand for the next ten weeks. Here are the things I wish I'd known before starting MeetSpace.
Signaling is the easy part
Most tutorials stop after a working signaling server. That's about 20% of the actual work — the other 80% is reconnection, ICE restarts and graceful degradation.
You will need a TURN server
Symmetric NATs are everywhere. STUN-only setups will look perfect in dev and break for half your users in prod. Budget for TURN.
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