# Connections

> Keep the modules behind your connections up to date, watch connection health, and check what each router integration supports.

A connection is how Buttons talks to a third-party device or service, such as a switcher, a router, or a display. Each one is powered by a module, runs as its own process, and reports its status and logs so you can see when it needs attention. These pages are for whoever maintains an installation: check or swap a connection's module version, read its status and logs when something fails, and confirm what a specific router integration exposes before you build a position around it. In a High Availability deployment, a connection that listens for incoming TCP or UDP traffic needs a port forwarding rule to be reachable on the virtual IP. See Forward incoming traffic to a connection in an HA deployment .