Newbie question on passwords

tranceplante

Hi everyone.

I'm new to networking and I started taking a class in college (night time) to eventually take the CCNA certification. I'm now to my 3rd class meaning I had about 8 hours of class yet.

Anyway my question was regarding passwords set up in the cisco switch/router. I'm having a hard time understanding the many different types of password.

First i type in this command:

Router2#configure terminal
Router2(config)#enable password mypassword

Second is here:
Router2(config)#enable password mypassword
Router2(config)#enable secret mysecretpassword

So what does that mean exactly? DO I have now two passwords to get in? or it was overwritten?

I am asking because the exercise is asking me to enter two passwords. One normal and one with the secret.

markulous

Enable password is in clear text, whereas the enable secret is not. When you perform the enable secret command, then it uses that as the default over the enable password.

tranceplante

Thanks mate! I'm new to all of this, but I really enjoy it... so far!

cheers!

Jon_Cisco

Welcome to the site. There are a lot of great people on here so stick around.

There will be a lot of passwords for different things. As you practice they will just become normal. I suggest setting a simple password and using it for all of your studies. I usually used cisco for just about everything. Just try to stay consistent it will help you a bunch.

When I first started I would be creative and forget the passwords when I went back to packet tracer a week later. So on my home lab I put the switch name and password in the login message. It's all overwhelming at first but it gets better.

pierrevilleres

I agree with markulous. enable password
#enable password mypassword /this password is in clear text
#enable secret mysecretpassword /this password is encrypted
#service password-encryption /this is used to encrypt all remaining passwords
you can use #show running-configuration to verify if the passwords are set