CISCO IOS in a Nutshell

System Banners

A router maintains a number of standard messages for communicating with users. These messages are typically associated with the process of logging into the router. For example, a user is typically shown a " message of the day,” followed by a login banner, followed by the login prompt itself. After a successful login, the user is usually shown an “exec banner”; in the special case of a reverse telnet connection (see Chapter 4), the user is shown the “incoming banner” rather than the exec banner. In other words, for a typical console session, you would see:

This is the message of the day banner. 
            (motd banner)
This is the login banner.               
            (login banner)
User access verification
    
Password:     
            (not echoed) 
This is the exec banner.   
            (exec banner)
Router>       
            (user mode prompt)

Each banner configuration statement has the same format: banner-type # message # . The pound character (#) represents the delimiting character of your choice. It marks the beginning and end of your message. You cannot use your delimiting character inside the message body. For example, the following command sets the message of the day:

Router(config)#banner motd #  Router will be rebooted today for maintenance.  #

Messages can contain blank lines and line breaks, as in the following example:

Router(config)#banner motd $
Enter TEXT message.  End with the character '$'.

Router will be down until tomorrow.

            I guess we should have planned it better.
            $
Router(config)#

Creating Banners

To create a banner of any type, ...