Language problem: ODBC changes special characters

We are running Oracle 10g and have some clients that need access to some views using an ODBC-connection.
Installation of the Instant Client and ODBC package went without trouble. We established a system DSN and the client has a successful connection to the database.
Some special characters (for example german "ä","ö","ü" and the symbol "Ø" for diameter) are howewer changed when viewed in Access or other 3rd party programms that use that system DSN ("ä" becomes "a", "ö" becomes "o", "Ø" becomes "?", etc.).
I guess there may be just a single setting we missed to configure. Can anybody help?
TNSNAMES.ORA (hostname changed):
ORACLE_DEVELOP =
(DESCRIPTION =
  (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = <hostname>)(PORT = 1521))
  (CONNECT_DATA =
    (SERVER = DEDICATED)
    (SERVICE_NAME = xyz)
Edited by: user10620045 on 16.12.2008 02:12

Hi,
What character set is your database? SELECT * FROM NLS_DATABASE_PARAMETERS WHERE PARAMETER LIKE '%ERSET';
Usually we see the behavior you're reporting when folks try to store data that the database characterset doesnt support. Disregard any sort of "when i select it from ____ it comes back different" results as that will only distract you.
What is the data stored as exactly? Insert just a character or two in a one column table and then use the dump command.. SELECT DUMP(COLNAME,1016) FROM TABLENAME WHERE ...
then match the code points with that character set and see if theyre valid.
Hope it helps,
Greg

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