What is the benefit of using NginX for Node.js?

Question

For what I understand Node.js doesnt need NginX to work as a http server (or a websockets server or any server for that matter), but I keep reading about how to use NginX instead of Node.js internal server and cant find of a good reason to go that way

Answer 1

Here http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/video.php?v=dahl-node Node.js author says that Node.js is still in development and so there may be security issues that NginX simply hides.
On the other hand, in case of a heavy traffic NginX will be able to split the job between many Node.js running servers.

Answer 2

But be prepared: nginx don't support http 1.1 while talking to backend so features like keep-alive or websockets won't work if you put node behind the nginx.