Configure Oracle Unicode Support

The Oracle configuration parameter for control character sets is the NLS_LANG environment variable, which should be set to the correct character set for your client. Oracle 8.1.7 claims to be capable of dynamically determining the character set in use on the client and does not require the NLS_LANG to be set, but it is not a bad idea to set it anyway.

Additional information on Oracle Unicode support can be found from otn.oracle.com