How To Set AD Password

My script is successfully creating AD and Exchange accounts but I'm having trouble setting the password.

I am setting these attributes:

                                  'userPassword' => 'password',
                                  'userAccountControl' => '66048',  # activates the account and sets the password to never expire


For some reason, the password is not being set but my script does not throw an error.

I have two questions:


1.       Does anyone know what the default password is for a newly created user in AD if none is set?

2.       What is the best way to set the password when creating a new user?


Thanks a lot

John