There are two types of passwords. You can configure both an enable password and an enable secret password. For maximum security, the enable password should be different from the enable secret password.

- Enable password—The enable password is a nonencrypted password. It can contain any number of uppercase and lowercase alphanumeric characters. Give the enable password only to users permitted to make configuration changes to the switch router.

- Enable secret password—The enable secret password is a secure, encrypted password. By setting an encrypted password, you can prevent unauthorized configuration changes. On systems running Cisco IOS, you must type in the enable secret password before you can access global configuration mode. You must type in the enable secret password to access boot ROM software.

An enable secret password can contain from 1 to 25 uppercase and lowercase alphanumeric characters. The first character cannot be a number. Spaces are valid password characters. Leading spaces are ignored; trailing spaces are recognized.