Using the DB-Library Automatic ANSI to OEM Conversion Option

When enabled, the Automatic ANSI to OEM conversion option converts a character set when communicating from:

• ANSI clients to OEM servers.
  
  
• OEM clients to ANSI servers.

This option is enabled by default. When the option is disabled, conversion of characters is disabled for all connections.

If the client code page is different from the code page on the instance of SQL Server, then the character set should be converted. Microsoft Windows NT®, Microsoft Windows® 2000, Windows 95, and Windows 98 have both an ANSI and an OEM character set, which are set during installation. For U.S. English, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 95, and Windows 98 use the default ANSI character set, code page 1252, and the default OEM character set, code page 437. Windows 3.x runs as an extension to MS-DOS, and has only the default ANSI character set of code page 1252. The Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 Console is internally Unicode, which behaves like an OEM character set.

Any clients running Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows 95, or Windows 98 are considered ANSI clients. Console-based applications, such as the isql utility, are considered OEM clients.

A server with the default code page of 12xx, such as 1252, is considered to be an ANSI server; with any other code page, it is considered to be an OEM server (for example, code page 850 or 437).

Although default code page values exist for both ANSI and OEM, the client's current operating system code page determines conversion values when characters are translated.