Pulling(traditional ajax) vs pushing(comet: reverse ajax)???

[steven3311]

I am looking to add a chat service to my website. I have read that there are 2 differnt ways of doing this. The traditional way of polling the server for new messages or establishing a connection and pushing messages to the client.

My questions are about the difference in preformance and are there any differences in the bandwidth usage? Basically which is the best way.

[jhardman]

Pushing is generally faster and will vary bandwidth depending on activity. On the other hand it is harder to program and the users must download some type of application for it to run, as far as I understand it.

Pulling will use the same amount of bandwidth at a constant rate, (even if there is no activity), doesn't require installation and is very easy to program.

Let me know if this helps.

Jared