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| 1.5 |  | Important IOS Features |
| 1.5.4 |  | Setting an IDLE timeout |

If a user is logged into a switch and performs no keystrokes, or remains idle for 10 minutes, the switch will automatically log the user out. This feature is referred to as an "idle timeout". If not logged out and the terminal is left unattended, this feature would prevent someone from gaining unauthorized access to the switch by using the terminal. Although the default setting of this feature is 10 minutes, it can be altered with the exec-timeout line console command.

> Switch(config-line)#exec-timeout number of minutes number of seconds

This command works like the router command. The commands to set the timeout on the console port of a Cisco IOS-based switch to 20 minutes are shown in Figure .