Comet server question

[shaunthomson]

Gidday

I'm trying to get my head around why comet is better than a basic AJAX long poll (which I tried for the first time today), and have a question, which I will follow up with a second, related question.

1. Is it better because a basic long poll creates a connection between a client and server, and the server can only handle a certain amount of open connections, whereas a comet server is designed to handle many?

2. Does a comet server work in that it 'takes over' the connection after the server initially responds, therefore allowing the initial connection to be closed, while the APE connection stays open?

Thanks for your time and help.