I installed nginx and used it as a proxy. It seems to work now. I couldn't figure out what may have been wrong.
I tried older versions of NodeBB and that did not resolve the problem. I have a feeling it's something to do with apache and the way I was setting it up. I'm using virtualmin.
*Setup which did not work
Ubuntu 14.04
LAMP
Virtualmin
Proxied using these settings in Virtualmin
MENU NAVIGATION: webmin -> server -> apache -> server name -> Edit Directives ->
Inserted the following
<Proxy *>
order deny,allow
allow from all
</Proxy>
ProxyPass /socket.io/1/websocket ws://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/1/websocket
ProxyPassReverse /socket.io/1/websocket ws://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/1/websocket
ProxyPass /socket.io/ http://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/
ProxyPassReverse /socket.io/ http://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/
ProxyPass /
http://127.0.0.1:4567/
ProxyPassReverse /
http://127.0.0.1:4567/
NGINX fixed my problem. I am including this information for others reference.
