How to allow special "alt" key characters

[comicus]

Hi everyone. =) I moved my forum from a shared server to a dedicated server several months ago. I have a lingering problem that I can't seem to fix.

Special characters (ones that require you to hold the "alt" key) no longer look right. They have been replaced by pretty much jibberish characters/images. Also, people cannot use the alt-characters in their posts, either. For example, if a member of my forum had the name Revølver, the special o-character no longer looks right. I'm guessing/assuming this has to do with my html character set. what should i set that to in order to allow special alt- characters? Is there anything else I need to do other than change to a new character set in my vb admin settings? My html character set is currently set to ISO-8859-1.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

What characterset is used on your database (tables)? And what was used on the old server?
How did you move the database from the old server?

[comicus]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

What characterset is used on your database (tables)? And what was used on the old server?
How did you move the database from the old server?

Hi Marco. Thanks so much for the reply. =)

It looks like the Collation on my DB is set to latin1_swedish_ci. To be honest, I'm not sure what was used on the old server. =(
The database was moved by my new host when I made the transfer. Do you think there's any way for me to fix this without doing more damage? =) Thanks again. I really appreciate your help!

[Marco van Herwaarden]

More info on how your host moved it might help.

It might be fixable, but i suggest that you open a support ticket regarding this as it is not an easy task and the actions that need to be taken might be different depnding on the exact problem.

[comicus]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

More info on how your host moved it might help.

It might be fixable, but i suggest that you open a support ticket regarding this as it is not an easy task and the actions that need to be taken might be different depnding on the exact problem.

Ok. I entered a support ticket with my host and told them what was going on and what the vb character set is, etc. i let them know that the issues started happening when they moved the site and asked them what they could do. Hopefully, they will be able to figure it out. Thanks for your help. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, if you have any other thoughts or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks again for your help. =)

[Marco van Herwaarden]

I was actually talking about a support ticket at vB.com, not your host although they might also be able to assist you in solving this. They should at least be ably to tell you how the database was moved.

PS I don't always trust others to know what they are doing. I suggest that you create an extra backup of your database before your host starts on trying to fix your problem. To solve this issue might require extensive MySQL knowledge, and it is very easy to make things worse.

[comicus]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

I was actually talking about a support ticket at vB.com, not your host although they might also be able to assist you in solving this. They should at least be ably to tell you how the database was moved.

PS I don't always trust others to know what they are doing. I suggest that you create an extra backup of your database before your host starts on trying to fix your problem. To solve this issue might require extensive MySQL knowledge, and it is very easy to make things worse.

Thanks Marco. Ya, I made a new backup last night for that exact reason. I'll see what they have to say and go from there. I definitely appreciate the advice to open up a ticket with VB. I'm glad to hear that it is an option.

--------------- Added [DATE]1217438560[/DATE] at [TIME]1217438560[/TIME] ---------------

hey Marco. They are offering to dump and re-import using the same char set as vb for the database. Are there any special instructions you think i should give them? (if we need to take this to PMs or whatever, please let me know). Thanks again.