title: local server ruins character encoding
body: <p>I need to learn all these encoding stuffs well. Because this is the third time I'm wasting my time with silly wrong encoding problems. Here is the problem:<br/>
  I have a simple php file.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>File is in the format of UTF-8</li>
  <li>If I run my local server, it makes <code>ı =&gt; Ä±</code> and <code>ö =&gt;  Ãœ</code></li>
  <li>If I rename extension as HTML it works perfectly, so the problem is local server, definetely.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>To correct this issue, I have done the following </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>I've read <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7522956/strange-character-in-fresh-wamp-installation">this</a>, <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7609509/php-mysql-e-written-as-a?lq=1">this</a> and <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/825939/php-character-encoding-problems">this</a></li>
  <li>Double checked the file encoding, it's UTF-8</li>
  <li>Added the meta tag <code>&lt;meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"&gt;</code></li>
  <li>Added the header inside php tag: <code>header("Content-type:text/html; charset: UTF-8");</code></li>
  <li>Added the internal encoding inside php tag <code>mb_internal_encoding('UTF-8');</code></li>
  <li>Corrected the line in <em>php.ini</em> file <code>default_charset = UTF-8</code></li>
  <li>Added the following in httpd.conf file: <code>AddDefaultCharset utf-8</code></li>
  <li>Everything is hard-coded, so I don't use database, it's not related to mysql encoding</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I'm using WAMP, and machine is Windows 7 English. I'm completely exhausted, therefore, I really need help. 
  <br/>Thanks.</p>