|  | 3.1 | Router User Interface
| 3.1.1 | User and privileged modes
To configure Cisco routers, you must either access the user interface on the router with a terminal or access the router remotely. When accessing a router, you must login to the router before you enter any other commands. For security purposes, the router has two levels of access to commands user mode --Typical tasks include those that check the router status. In this mode, router configuration changes are not allowed. privileged mode --Typical tasks include those that change the router configuration. When you first login to a router, you see a user mode prompt. Commands available at this user level are a subset of the commands available at the privileged level. For the most part, these commands allow you to display information without changing router configuration settings. To access the full set of commands, you must first enable the privileged mode. At the ">" prompt, type "enable". At the "password" prompt, enter the password that has been set with the "enable secret" command. Once you have completed the login steps, the prompt changes to a # (pound sign) because you are now in the priviledged mode. From the privileged mode, you can access modes such as the global configuration mode and other specific modes including: interface subinterface line router route-map several additional configuration modes To logout of the router, type exit. Screen output varies with the specific Cisco IOS software level and router configuration.