[Wylug-help] Bad Passwords

[Trevor Noland]

Hello Everybody,

We have a small Linux server with about 20 users, in a LAN without
connection to the outside world. The users are all PCs running different
versions of M$ Windows, and connect, using a telnet program, to do
accounting, invoices, stock control etc. in a fairly conventional but very
rubust (if out of date) commercial setup.
Up to now only about half of the users have a password. It's not a problem,
as all the users have access to the same stuff anyway, and we all know each
other (and each other's passwords!). Only root (and one user with root
permission) have "difficult" paswords which only two people know
(hopefully).
Now there's a probability that this LAN will be included in a network with a
router, and in provision of access via Internet sometime in the future we
are giving all accounts passwords as a first step towards some sort of
protection (not much, I know, but it's a start).
Now here's the rub. Some of the passwords users want are rejected by passwd.
Particularly annoying are the ones said to be based on dictionary words,
because most words in the dictionaries here (in Spain) are accepted, the
ones being rejected are the "foreign" words found in English.
(Should I have mentioned at the beginning that I was writing from Spain?)
(Why Wylug and not something more local? Well I was born and lived the first
20 years of my life in Leeds, also Wylug seems to work much better than any
others I've lurked in!)

My question at last (if anyone has read this far):

Is there a way to get Linux to accept passwords that it doesn't like?

Best wishes to everyone, hope you can help me.
Trevor.