password cracking: one char at a time.

[michael young <mhyoung () valdosta edu>]

Hi all,
   I was wondering if is at all possible to discover a password one 
char at a time.
Normally, you either get the password right or wrong (all or nothing).
Does anyone know if this can be done? Does it depend on the encryption 
algorithm
used to encrypt the password? Is that a difference for 1 and/or 2 way 
passwords?

thank you,
Michael