Keeping ajax request/keeping conection open from webpage

[Verdagon]

Hey everyone, I have an ajax game, and I'm looking for solutions to get near-instantaneous communication between user A, user B, and the server.

the "server" can be one of two things:
http://verdagon.net/, with php/mysql,
or my macbook pro, which I could use for a unix server (and get a real unix server later)

So, the only way for an ajax webpage to get fast communication is to continuously poll the server until something happens. But then I thought, well, my ajax sends data out, then receives data in... is there a way I could just skip the "send data out" step, and just receive data when the mac server java program sends it?

Or is there a way my java program on my mac server could just hold a request, and not return its response until something happens?

Please tell me your thoughts... thanks!

• E

[rulian]

i'm not sure about java
but your right for thinking ajax cant handle that.
Keep in mind ajax happens on the users machine not the server, so it wont know something has changed on the server until it goes there and checks.