The password

The password can be changed at any time in an XTerm terminal emulator using the "passwd" command. The previous password and the new password (to protect against typing errors) are requested twice. Passwords should not be too simple, otherwise they can be guessed relatively quickly by trial and error.

The following therefore applies when choosing a password

- the password should not be a word or name (nor should it contain any!)

- the password should contain several special characters/numbers or capital letters.

It must also be noted that

- the classic Unix operating system recognises a maximum of 8 US-ASCII coded characters (more characters can be entered, the characters after the eighth character are ignored).

- Due to the restriction to US-ASCII, special characters according to ISO-Latin1 (umlauts, etc.) are problematic: not every input device can generate special characters according to ISO during the login process.

- Control characters (CTRL-@ to CTRL-_ and DEL) are also problematic, as some control characters are used for special signalling purposes during the login process.

- The SPACE character (space bar) is also problematic, as this character is used as a separator in some network protocols and therefore cannot be transmitted as part of a password

One possible way to obtain a password that is difficult to guess is to skilfully insert numbers and special characters into words whose case is also changed.

Example:

Word: Password

Insert: pa3ss%word

Upper/lower case: pA3sS%wOrt

Truncate to 8 characters: pA3sS%wO

(please do not use this example as a password!)

Passwords that are slightly easier to remember can be created by joining syllables together, whereby the upper/lower case is also changed.

Example:

Syllables: lich wo un

Upper/lower case: lIch wO uN

Password (8 characters): lIchwOuN

(please do not use this example as a password!)

However, the syllables joined together should not themselves form a word. If you encounter problems when changing the password, please contact ARBI for advice.