change pw with putty

["shane c branch" <scbranch barton edu>]

I have a server with user accounts, but I having trouble setting a way for new
users to have the same password, which must be changed the first time they
access the system. I consulted the redhat documentation, which says that I
should create an account, set the password, then immediately expire the pw with
chage command. However, this only seems to work if I use a null pw for the
initial value. If I provide a value for the new pw, the user is not prompted to
change the expired pw at first access attempt.

Furthermore, I find that this only works when the user connects by telnet, and
I would prefer to use ssh (putty). However, even with the null pw, a user
connecting over putty does not get prompted for an immediate pw change.

Anyone know how to fix this?

regards,

shane