Suggested "safe" password length

[Ashish Sharma <ashishs () iitg ernet in>]

Hi,
I wanted to have an idea about what should be the suggested range of
password lengths and if there is any upper bound.
I was told that there is a range upto which your password is encrypted
and beyond which the characters are futile. I work on a linux environment
with md5 encryption of passwords enabled.
TIA
Ashish

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