The console is a window where you type commands on your server. You only need it once, for about five minutes, to paste the install line. You do not need to know any commands.
The easy way: the button at your hosting company:
Sign in to your hosting company's website, open your server, and press its console button. The console opens in your browser.
- DigitalOcean: open your Droplet and press Console at the top right.
- Hostinger VPS: open your VPS and press Browser terminal.
- Amazon Lightsail: open your instance and press Connect using SSH.
- Other companies call it Console, Web console, Web terminal or Browser terminal. Their help pages show where it is.
If it asks you to sign in, type root and press Enter, then type your server password from your hosting company's welcome email and press Enter. Nothing appears while you type a password. That is normal.
To paste the install line, right-click inside the console and choose Paste, or press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac), then press Enter.
Some consoles show a picture of the server's screen, where pasting does not work. Hetzner and Vultr work like this. Use the way below instead.
The way that works with any hosting company:
Your own computer can open a console on your server. You need your server's IP address and password, from your hosting company's welcome email or your server's page on their website.
On Windows:
- Press the Start button, type Terminal (or PowerShell) and open it.
- Type ssh root@ followed by your server's IP address, for example ssh root@203.0.113.5, and press Enter.
- The first time, it asks if you want to continue. Type yes and press Enter.
- Type your server password and press Enter. Nothing appears while you type it.
On a Mac:
- Open Terminal (in Applications, then Utilities).
- Follow steps 2 to 4 above.
You are in when you see a line ending in # or $ waiting for you. Now paste the install line from Installing TimeTrackr On A Server.
Prefer not to?
Choose done-for-you setup and we do this part for you.