title: Send subdomain to node.js
body: <p>My work runs a couple different internal web apps on an ubuntu server (10.10) running apache.  I'm currently developing another web app, and am seriously considering developing on top of a custom-built node.js web server.  My reasoning for wanting to do this is:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Speed/Scalability</li>
  <li>Security - Pages will be served with a switch...case, instead of just serving the (potentially malicious) user whatever they ask for.  </li>
  <li>Ease of setup - my intentions are for this to be an open-source project, and node.js is much easier for users to set up, rather than dealing with apache/IIS/etc.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>My question is, on a server where I've got apache listening to port 80, how can I pass off a certain subdomains to node.js.  I've seen a couple articles about using apache virtual hosts to pass it off, but that seems to defeat the purpose of using node.js.  If I have to go through apache, then all three of my reasons for avoiding apache/IIS have voided themselves.</p>
  
  <p>I know I could use a different port (:8080?), but from an end-user standpoint, it's pretty confusing having to put in custom ports.  Any alternative ideas?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>