title: socket.io on node.js and heroku, idle timeout error
body: <p>I'm using socket.io, which works great locally, but once in production with heroku it times out. I know this is because heroku will kill/timout a web socket connection if nothing is heard inside the 55 second rolling window. </p>
  
  <p>The problem I've got is that I'm setting the socket.io hearbeat interval to 60000 so nothing is heard for 60 seconds, i.e outside the 55 second window:</p>
  
  <pre><code>io.set('heartbeat interval', 60000); //heroku timeout with Idle connection error. 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I need some way of polling the server inside that 55 second window that keeps the connection alive. Changing the heartbeat interval isn't really an option, so I'm not sure how to go about this.</p>