configuration process

Manglian

Hi there!
I am new in networking and trying to learn configuration process.
Could any body please answer my questions from the following configuration process

Router>enable
Router#configure terminal
Router(config)#enable password lu
Router(config)#line console 0
Router(config-line)#login
Router(config-line)#password cisco
Router(config-line)#hostname critter
critter(config)#prompt Emma
Emma (config)#interface serial 1
Emma(config)#interface serial 1
....................................

Why

(1) Prompt Emma is used?
(2) when I use in my router it does not change to

Emma (config)#

Instead it comes

critter(config)#

Please explain why we use prompt command?

Many thanks

cristi.grigore

You can use the prompt command to have the router display a certain prompt text in the user an privileged EXEC modes, but not the config mode.

The default prompt on most routers is the name you defined using the hostname command followed by > (for user mode) or # (for privileged mode). The reason behind this is that the router hostname can be used in different authentication schemes (like CHAP), but you would rather have a different prompt than the hostname of the router. This means that you have to configure a certain hostname on a router in order for the authentication to be successful, but you don't want to see the same string as the router prompt. Still, configuring a prompt will not affect the configuration mode, but only the user and privileged modes.

The following is taken from cisco.com:

PROMPT

To customize the CLI prompt, use the prompt command in global configuration mode. To revert to the default prompt, use the no form of this command.

DEFAULTS

The default prompt is either "Success rate is 100 percent, round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/4 ms" or the name defined with the hostname global configuration command, followed by an angle bracket (>) for user EXEC mode or a pound sign (#) for privileged EXEC mode.

Hope this helps.