More testing notes. I have now run tests both from PHP and ASP. In *both* cases I see identical results:
Post Subject without unicode: test post without unicode
Post Body without unicode: test post with just normal characters in it, as well as xyzzy for testing.
length of post body: 74
Post Subject WITH unicode: test post with unicode
Post Body WITH unicode:
length of post body: 0
So it's definitely something about connecting to the database that is independent of PHP or ASP. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
