The PowerShell cmdlets included in NetCmdlets allow you to perform authentication using either plain text (with the -User and -Password string parameters) or with a PSCredential object (through the -Credential parameter).

Here's an example with the Get-LDAP cmdlet.

1. Bind to the directory server using plain text parameters, like this:
   PS> Connect-LDAP -Server myserver -BindDN mydomain\admin -Password admin

2. Or, bind using a PSCredential object, like this:
   PS> $myCred = Get-Credential
   PS> Connect-LDAP -Server myserver -Cred $mycred

   Note: It is also possible to bind with credentials even if you're not using Active Directory (ie, if you're binding with Novell or OpenLDAP).

Here's another example using the Get-FTP cmdlet.

1. Connecting to an FTP server supplying a plain text user and password:
   PS> Get-FTP -Server myserver -User myusername -Password mypassword

2. Or, connecting to an FTP server using a PSCredential object:
   PS> $myCred = Get-Credential
   PS> Get-FTP -Server myserver -Cred $mycred

Both of the above examples that use the -Credential parameter assume that a PSCredential object was already created and stored in the $mycred variable. The process of manually creating the PSCredential object can be avoided by saving your password in a securestring file and creating the new PSCredential object on the fly, using those file contents, like so: