Instead of intelligent guesses, here is an informed answer:
HTML 5 plans to allow peer to peer connections from javascript, but these connections WILL NOT BE RAW TCP.
The complete spec can be found at http://dev.w3.org/html5/websockets/
jrh
EDIT: with specific reference to peer to peer connections, check out these links:
- Regarding peer to peer connections: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/#peer-to-peer
- Regarding broadcast connections to the local network: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/#broadcast
- Regarding TCP connections (in the encoded protocol): http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/#tcp-connections
- Complete proposed spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/#network
Its important to note that the capabilities are still being negotiated. It will be nice to be able to create “local chat” web apps 🙂
jrh