Western Telematic APS-16 - Manual (Page 20)

5.3.1. The Supervisor Password
The Supervisor Password allows access to higher level APS configuration commands, which
administrators can employ to select communication parameters, assign port access rights, and
perform other system management tasks.
After the Supervisor Password has been defined (via the System Parameters menu), the APS
will display a password prompt whenever you attempt to access the command mode. If the
correct Supervisor Password is entered, the APS command mode then starts up in Supervisor
Mode. Supervisor Level commands are summarized in Section 9.3 of this User’s Guide.
Notes:
• If the Supervisor Password is not defined, then Supervisor Level commands will
be available to all ports, and port access and configuration functions will not be
password protected.
• If you wish to restrict user ports from changing APS configuration parameters or
connecting to restricted ports, the Supervisor Password must be defined.
• When the Supervisor Password is defined, the APS will display a password
prompt when you attempt to access the command mode. Any RS232 port that has
not been assigned a Port Password, can then only be accessed using the Supervisor
Password.
• When defining a Supervisor Password, it is strongly recommended that you record
the password for future use. If you forget or lose your Supervisor Password, you
will not be able to access Supervisor Level Commands. In this case, the only way
to access the Supervisor Mode, is to reinitialize the APS to default values as
described in Section 4.2.
Normally, the Supervisor Password can be entered at any port in order to gain access to
Supervisor Level commands. Note that if you wish to completely deny a port’s access to
Supervisor Mode (even with the Supervisor Password), the Port Parameters menus (/P) can be
used to disable the Supervisor Mode at ports 3 through 16. The Supervisor Mode cannot be
disabled at System SetUp Ports 1 and 2.
Note that if the unit is reset to default parameters, all ports will revert to the default state,
where Supervisor Level commands are available to all ports, without password protection.
5.3.2. The Port Passwords
The Port Passwords (or User Passwords) allow system administrators to restrict access to a
specific group of ports. When the APS command mode is accessed with a Port Password, users
may only connect to the RS232 Ports to which they have been granted access, and review
configuration parameters for those ports. Port Passwords do not grant access to APS
configuration commands.
The configuration menus (/P) for each RS232 port allow a Port Password to be assigned to each
individual port. In order to allow a Port Password to grant access to a group of APS ports, the
same Port Password is assigned to each port in the group.
5-2
APS Series - Asynchronous Port Switches, User's Guide Configuration