# Create a serial connection to the Outposts server
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The following are instructions to create a serial connection from your laptop to the Outposts server. They use popular serial terminal programs. You are not required to use these programs. You can use the serial terminal program that you prefer, if it supports a connection speed of `115200` baud.

**Topics**
+ [Windows serial connection](#windows-serial)
+ [Mac serial connection](#mac-serial)

## Windows serial connection
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The following instructions are for PuTTY on Windows. PuTTY is free, but you may have to download it.

**Download PuTTY**  
Download and install PuTTY from the [PuTTY download page](https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html).

**To create a serial terminal on Windows using PuTTY**

1. Plug the USB cable into your Windows laptop first, then into the server.

1. From the Desktop, right-click **Start**, and choose **Device Manager**.

1. In **Device Manager**, expand **Ports (COM & LPT)** to determine the COM port for the USB serial connection. You will see a node named **USB Serial Port (COM*\$1*)**. The value for the COM port depends on your hardware.  
![\[An image of a Device Manager on Windows set to COM port 3.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/outposts/latest/install-server/images/PuTTY-serial01.png)

1. In PuTTY, from **Session**, choose **Serial** for **Connection type**, and then enter the following information: 
   + Under **Serial line**, enter the COM*\$1* port from Device Manager.
   + Under **Speed**, enter: `115200`

   The following image shows an example on the **PuTTY Configuration** page:  
![\[An image of a screen in PuTTY.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/outposts/latest/install-server/images/PuTTY-serial.png)

1. Choose **Open**.

   An empty console window appears. It can take between 1 to 2 minutes for one of the following to appear:
   + `Please wait for the system to stabilize. This can take up to 900 seconds, so far x seconds have elapsed on this boot.`
   + The `Outpost>` prompt.

## Mac serial connection
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The following instructions are for **screen** on macOS. You can find **screen** included with the operating system.

**To create a serial terminal on macOS using **screen****

1. Plug the USB cable into your Mac laptop first, then into the server.

1. In Terminal, list `/dev` with a `*usb*` filter for output to find the virtual serial port.

   ```
   ls -ltr /dev/*usb*
   ```

   The serial device appears as `tty`. For example, consider the following sample output from the previous list command: 

   ```
   ls -ltr /dev/*usb*
   crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel   21,   3 Feb  8 15:48 /dev/cu.usbserial-EXAMPLE1
   crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel   21,   2 Feb  9 08:56 /dev/tty.usbserial-EXAMPLE1
   ```

1. In Terminal, use **screen** with the serial device and a baud rate of the serial connection to set up the serial connection. In the following command, replace *EXAMPLE1* with the value from your laptop.

   ```
   screen /dev/tty.usbserial-EXAMPLE1 115200
   ```

   An empty console window appears. It can take between 1 to 2 minutes for one of the following to appear:
   + `Please wait for the system to stabilize. This can take up to 900 seconds, so far x seconds have elapsed on this boot.`
   + The `Outpost>` prompt.