Hi, today we will look to configure Cisco routers and switches with a password. It may be seen as trivial but very important for security because a lot of issues a password related. Network devices use a lot of protocols to work and these protocols needs security. Authentication resides in security and the first rule of authentication is real check. For example, if you connect a switch with telnet you should give your credentials to gain rights to manage switch or you need to gain more rights to change switch configuration.

Create User and Set Password

Create a login username and password and set them. Using secret is more secure, the password is old usage if you have secret option use it. With secret option, the password is saved as hashed value as you can see below.

R1(config)#username ismail secret baydan
R1(config)#username ismail1 password baydan

username ismail secret 4 uUNrmVJMWAlh9CUpKbtDkBsRIuWSKIcDf5PTx4bbBdI
username ismail1 password 0 baydan

Set Password For Enable/Global Configuration Mode

To set a password for global configuration mode. Here you can use password option too but as I said before the secret is more secure.

R1(config)#enable secret baydan

Set Password For VTY or Telnet/SSH

Cisco devices can be managed using by protocols like Telnet or SSH. This protocol provides remote management opportunity. So we need to set a password to these services.

R1(config-line)#password ismail
R1(config-line)#login
R1(config-line)#login local