socket.io shows dependency warnings when installing using npm - reactjs

Question

I am trying to install socket.io using npm, however whenever I run
npm run build:dll
I get the warnings/errors:
Building the Webpack DLL...
Hash: e4aec7398e03ac59c7bf
Version: webpack 3.5.5
Time: 3456ms
Asset Size Chunks Chunk Names
reactBoilerplateDeps.dll.js 4.55 MB 0 [emitted] [big] reactBoilerplateDeps
chunk {0} reactBoilerplateDeps.dll.js (reactBoilerplateDeps) 3.84 MB [entry] [rendered]
WARNING in ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
108:11-32 Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
WARNING in ./node_modules/ws/lib/BufferUtil.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'bufferutil' in '/Users/***/node_modules/ws/lib'
# ./node_modules/ws/lib/BufferUtil.js 35:21-42
# ./node_modules/ws/lib/Sender.js
# ./node_modules/ws/index.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/ws/lib/Validation.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'utf-8-validate' in '/Users/***/node_modules/ws/lib'
# ./node_modules/ws/lib/Validation.js 10:22-47
# ./node_modules/ws/lib/Receiver.js
# ./node_modules/ws/index.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_46.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_46.node Unexpected character '�' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_47.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_47.node Unexpected character '�' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_48.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_48.node Unexpected character '�' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_51.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_51.node Unexpected character '�' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_57.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_darwin_57.node Unexpected character '�' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_linux_46.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_linux_46.node Unexpected character '' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_linux_47.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_linux_47.node Unexpected character '' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_linux_48.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_linux_48.node Unexpected character '' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_linux_51.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_linux_51.node Unexpected character '' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_win32_48.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_win32_48.node Unexpected character '�' (1:2)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
WARNING in ./node_modules/uws/uws_win32_51.node
Module parse failed: /Users/***/node_modules/uws/uws_win32_51.node Unexpected character '�' (1:2)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
# ./node_modules/uws ^\.\/uws_.*$
# ./node_modules/uws/uws.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js
# ./node_modules/engine.io/lib/engine.io.js
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
ERROR in ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'fs' in '/Users/***/node_modules/socket.io/lib'
# ./node_modules/socket.io/lib/index.js 7:11-24 9:13-26
# dll reactBoilerplateDeps
I have tired adding node: { fs: 'empty' } to my webpack conf, and deleting and node_modules folder, however it doesnt fix it. This issue has now also appeared on one of my old projects which I have updated.
I have found people with similar issues, however none of the fixes have worked.
"socket.io": "^2.0.4",
"webpack": "3.5.5",
I tired installing socket.io-client and I get even more errors (edit: I seem to need both for a react app).
My webpack config is the same as the react boilerplates. Using a Mac and Webstorm if this helps.

Answer 1

I found that I had used:
node: {
fs: 'empty',
}
In the wrong place and needed to add:
noParse: /ws/,
externals: ['ws'],
to webpack.base.babel
This cleared up all of the errors

Answer 2

use Webpack node modules externals to ignore all modules from node_module dir and built-in modules
var nodeExternals = require('webpack-node-externals');
...
module.exports = {
...
target: 'node', // in order to ignore built-in modules like path, fs, etc.
externals: [nodeExternals()], // in order to ignore all modules in node_modules folder
...
};