Applied Complex Passwords to Group Policy under Active Directory ???

[ftoddt]

I wanted to force complex passwords on a certain group of users under active directory. When I right clicked on that group and select properties there is a group policy in there and I changed the setting to complex password. I thne added in the properties of each user that they would have to reset their password. That part worked but the complex or number of letters hasn't seem to work it way down to the users. What have I missed?
Thanks

 

[mawilson]

You can only set account policies at the domain level. When you make the change to the password policy, their old passwords will still work until they are set to expired. Then they would have to meet the complexity requirements.

 

[jcneil1]

You can only set password policy at the root level- in other words the policy has to be attached to your domain. All password policies set on OU's are ignored.

 

[ftoddt]

jcneil 1 & mawilson,
Thanks for your responses. I am unfamiliar with the acronym of OU's. You said "All password policies set on OU's are ignored". If OU's are the various user groups and their assciated group policy in their properties, then from what you are saying, only by selecting the properties of the domain and its group policy can you influence client password requirements. However, that doesn't make sense not to have the ability to make policy changes appropriate for each group of users.
In my domain, I have a group called teachers in active directory. Under that group each teacher is added as a user. Another group called Office with each office staff user added in active directory. And another group called Students. It would make sense to require complex passwords for teachers and staff who have more premissions and privleges than students that have none.
So therin lies my problem.
It sounds like I can't do it.

 

[mawilson]

Yes OU's (Organizational Units) are the groups in the domain. And yes everyone in the domain has the same password requirements. That is the way MS designed it. I have run into that wall before also.