Character restriction on passwords

[Scobee]

Hi,
Can anyone point me to whitepapers that list character restrictions (if any) in Active Directory passwords? I am talking about the use of puctuation marks, spaces, tildies, bangs, colons, equal signs and anything else on the keyboard.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
Scobee

 

[markdmac]

No restrictions ont he allowed characters. If you have enabled Complex Passwords via the Default Domain Policy, then you will need to include 3 out of the 4 character sets:

Uppercase
Lowercase
Numbers
Punctuation

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[ITPangaeaArchitect]

there are certain alt codes which should not be used...this is merely due to the fact that they translate into a plain english letter.

But technically, there are no character restrictions

-Brandon Wilson
MCSE00/03, MCSA:Messaging, MCSA03, A+
almost got a paragraph there

 

[Scobee]

I appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Scobee

 

[Seaspray0]

Microsoft suggests passwords of 7 characters minimum and changed every 2 months. Consider the human factor when you set the paramaters on the complexity of your passwords. If you require them to be too complex or changed too often then users will start writing them down on post'its and sticking them under keyboards or on the monitor.

Please suggest the following to users for password creation: Use a pattern on the keyboard instead of actual words, i.e. fr456yhg (type it and you'll see the pattern). When you are required to change your password, simply move the pattern to a new starting position, i.e. ju789olk (same pattern but starts with j). 1. They are easy to remember since all you really need to know is where it starts. 2. Patterns easily fit complexity requirements based on how the are chosen.

A+/MCP/MCSE/MCDBA