I am new here, so I apologize if I am doing anything wrong.

I have a form which submits user input onto another page. User is expected to type ä, ö, é, etc... I have placed all of the following in the document:

```
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
header('Content-Type:text/html; charset=UTF-8');
<form action="whatever.php" accept-charset="UTF-8">

```

I even tried:

```
ini_set('default_charset', 'UTF-8');

```

When the other page loads, I need to check what the user input with something like:

```
if ( $_POST['field'] == $check ) {
  ...
}

```

But if he inputs something like 'München', PHP will compare 'MÃ¼nchen' with 'München' and will never trigger TRUE even though it should. Since it is specified UTF-8 everywhere, I am guessing that the server is converting to something else (Windows-1252 as I read on another thread) because it does not support or is not configured to UTF-8. I am using Apache on a local server before I load into production; I have not changed (and don't know how to) any of the default settings. I've been working on a Windows 7, editing with Notepad++ enconding my files in ANSI. If I `bin2hex('München')` I get '4dc3bc6e6368656e'.

If I `echo $_POST['field'];` it displays 'München' correctly.

I have researched everywhere for an explanation, all I find is that I should include those tags/headings I already have.

Any help is much appreciated.