I just created an app using Node.js, Express.js, and Socket.io and it works fine even switched hosts over to my ip address for testing on localhost but when I install it with Phonegap it runs but doesn't seem to connect. I also used io.set('transports', [ 'websocket', 'xhr-polling' ]);
This app is able to be viewed here
https://github.com/joshbedo/chat-app/blob/master/app/server.js