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Q176235: XCON: Cyrillic Characters Not Rendered Correctly

Article: Q176235
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): winnt:5.0,5.5
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): exc5 exc55
Last Modified: 18-DEC-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 5.5, 5.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

When Microsoft Exchange Server receives X.400-messages from another X.400 system
that uses the ISO 8859-5 (Latin-5) character set for the message bodypart,
Microsoft Exchange cannot render the Cyrillic characters correctly.

The characters in question are part of ISO 8859-5 (Latin-5) character set.
Instead, Microsoft Exchange replaces the Cyrillic characters with placeholders.
The replacement depends on the body-part chosen through the Microsoft Exchange
Administrator program. Because the ISO 8859-5 (Latin-5) character set is not
available, the chosen character set is different from the original Latin-5
character set. Additionally, the lack of ISO 8859-5 (Latin-5) within Microsoft
Exchange means that it was not possible to send messages with Cyrillic
characters to foreign X.400 systems that have been set up to use ISO 8859-5
(Latin-5).

CAUSE
=====

The use of ISO 8859-5 (Latin-5) as X.400 bodypart for the X.400 message text is
not implemented in Microsoft Exchange.

WORKAROUND
==========

Aside of the hotfix described in this article, no workaround is available for
Cyrillic characters if the communication takes place between Microsoft Exchange
and foreign X.400 systems. If the communication takes place between different
Microsoft Exchange Servers, the option Allow MS Exchange Contents can be used to
prevent the conversion of messages from the internal content (MDBEF) to the
X.400-format.

STATUS
======

Microsoft recognizes the increasing need to support the Latin-5 character set
properly. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for
Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0. For information on obtaining the Service
Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the
spaces):

  S E R V P A C K


MORE INFORMATION
================

Currently, in the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program on the X.400
Connector's Advanced property page, the drop down list X.400 Bodypart Used for
Message Text does not expose the added character set. Therefore, the new
functionality can only be activated using the Raw Properties of the affected
X.400-connector. To be able to access the Raw properties of an Microsoft
Exchange object you need to start the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program
in Raw mode. This is accomplished by typing:

  <drive:>\<path to the admin module>\admin -r

-or-

  <drive:>\<path to the admin module>\admin /r

on the command line.

Once the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program is started in Raw mode, you can
access the Raw properties of each object by highlighting the object and clicking
Raw Properties on the File menu. The name of the Raw attribute which needs to be
changed in this case is Translation-Table-Used and the appropriate value is 8.

Because the fix does not affect Subject-Lines and Display-Names, it is likely
that in these lines Cyrillic characters will still be displayed as "???".


Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : exc5 exc55 
Technology        : kbExchangeSearch kbExchange500 kbExchange550 kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : winnt:5.0,5.5
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

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