I have to design a **client/server** system emulated on a website running **Ruby on Rails** that should work like this: a page is requested by a web browser and once it's opened the server can **push messages** to it I know this is not possible "naturally" but I was thinking of a sort of "java applet" that is running on that page, listening on a port for messages to be sent by the hosting server. This should be done opening a sort of a socket that listens on some port where the server can connect to send its messages. Can this be done? Do I have to develop a java server thread or can I simply address the client applet via it's ip address and port and use any web service connection from the server? thanks, Luca