WebAssembly is not magic, the simple reality is that browsers do not expose low level socket interfaces, so they cannot connect to arbitrary services on the wider internet.

We choose to use Tailscale since they allow WebSocket-based connections via their DERPs.

It is interesting that, originally, DERPs were intended to be a solution for machines in extremely limited networking environment where nothing but HTTP is allowed. Turns out browsers are exactly one of those extremely limited networking environments.