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| 9.4 |  | Basic Security |
| 9.4.5 |  | Out-of-band management |

Out-of-band management options include the following:

- Console 0 (con0)
- Auxiliary 0 (aux0)

Figures , , and illustrate the location of the console port on various Cisco switching devices.

Console and auxiliary ports can be directly attached to local management terminals using serial connections for local out-of-band management. Modems can also be connected to console and auxiliary ports to support out-of-band management from remote locations.

> Note: Connecting modems to the switch console port can allow network administrators to access remote devices during data network outages. Because connecting modems to remote devices allows access to the device console or auxiliary port from anyone using the public telephone network, the phone number used to dial into the device should be kept secret.

Remote devices with modems connected to console or auxiliary ports should also be configured with complex passwords. That is, passwords should not use real words, and should be made up using a combination of numbers (0-9), upper-and lower-case letters (a-z, A-Z), and special characters (!@#$%^&*{}[]).