Fix RADIUS & Database Character Encoding Issues

Character encoding problems can cause data corruption, authentication failures, and display issues when handling usernames, passwords, or RADIUS attributes with non-ASCII characters.

Overview

Mideye Server handles characters in multiple contexts:

• RADIUS protocol — Configurable encoding per client
• LDAP/AD — UTF-8 by default
• Database — UTF-8/UTF8MB4
• Web interface — UTF-8
• Configuration files — UTF-8

Encoding mismatches between these systems cause problems with international characters, accents, and special symbols.

Problematic Character Categories

1. Scandinavian characters: å, ä, ö, Å, Ä, Ö, ø, æ
2. Accented characters: é, è, ê, ñ, ü, ç
3. Cyrillic characters: а, б, в, г, д
4. Asian characters: 中, 日, 한
5. Special punctuation: ”, ”, –, —

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Common Issues

1. RADIUS Encoding Mismatch

Problem: RADIUS client and Mideye Server use different character encodings, causing corruption of attributes with international characters.

Root Cause: The RADIUS protocol does not specify encoding. Mideye Server supports multiple encodings per RADIUS client:

Encoding	Description	Use Case
UTF-8	All characters including international	Most modern devices
ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1)	Western European characters	Legacy devices
US-ASCII	Basic Latin only	Very old devices
UTF-16	Rarely used	Specific devices only

The encoding is configured per RADIUS client in the RADIUS Clients page.

Symptoms:

• Username with å, ä, ö shows as garbage: ã¥, ã¤, ã¶
• Reply-Message attribute displays incorrectly
• Authentication fails for users with international characters

Solution:

1. Navigate to RADIUS Clients in the web interface
2. Edit the client
3. Set Encoding to match what the RADIUS device sends (usually UTF-8)
4. Save changes
5. Test authentication with a user that has international characters

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2. Username with Special Characters Fails

Problem: Users with accented or international characters in usernames cannot authenticate.

Symptoms:

• User “José” cannot authenticate
• User “Müller” shows as “M?ller”
• Works for ASCII-only usernames

Solution:

1. Ensure RADIUS client uses UTF-8:

   • Navigate to RADIUS Clients
   • Update encoding to UTF-8

2. Check LDAP username attribute:

   • Navigate to LDAP Profiles
   • Use sAMAccountName (usually ASCII-only) for maximum compatibility
   • Or userPrincipalName if international characters are required

3. Test with different username formats:

   • Try: jose@domain.com (ASCII)
   • Try: josé@domain.com (international)

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3. Password with Special Characters

Problem: Passwords containing special characters fail authentication even when correct.

Symptoms:

• Password works from some devices, not others
• Changing password to ASCII-only fixes the issue
• Users report “correct password doesn’t work”

Solution:

1. Set RADIUS client to UTF-8 encoding in RADIUS Clients

2. For maximum compatibility, advise users to use passwords with:

   • Letters (a-z, A-Z)
   • Numbers (0-9)
   • Common symbols (!, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *)
   • Avoid international characters and emoji

3. Test from different devices to identify device-specific encoding issues

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4. Database Encoding Issues

Problem: Data stored in database appears corrupted when retrieved.

Symptoms:

• Usernames with å, ä, ö show as garbled text
• RADIUS reply messages corrupted
• Configuration values with special characters fail

Solution:

See Database Issues for complete database encoding configuration.

Quick fix for new databases:

CREATE DATABASE mideyeserver
  CHARACTER SET utf8mb4
  COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

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5. RADIUS Reply-Message Encoding

Problem: Custom RADIUS reply messages with international characters appear corrupted on client devices.

Solution:

1. Ensure the RADIUS client is configured for UTF-8 in RADIUS Clients
2. Configure reply messages in RADIUS Servers or via authentication policies
3. Test with a message containing international characters: “Välkommen! (Welcome!)”
4. If the device doesn’t support UTF-8, use ASCII-only reply messages

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6. Log Display Encoding Issues

Problem: Log files show corrupted characters when viewing authentication attempts.

Root Cause: Terminal or log viewer doesn’t support UTF-8.

Solution:

1. Use the web interface — The Log Files page handles UTF-8 correctly

2. Set terminal to UTF-8 (Linux):

   export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

3. Check terminal encoding:

   locale
   # Should show UTF-8 for LC_CTYPE

4. Windows PowerShell: UTF-8 output is supported by default in modern PowerShell

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Best Practices

For Administrators

1. Standardize on UTF-8 everywhere:

   • Database: UTF8MB4
   • RADIUS clients: UTF-8
   • LDAP: UTF-8 (default)

2. Test with international characters:

   • Create test account with characters like åsa.test@domain.com
   • Test authentication from all device types
   • Verify logs show characters correctly

3. Document encoding configurations:

   • Which RADIUS clients use which encoding
   • Any legacy devices requiring non-UTF-8

For Users

1. Usernames: ASCII-only usernames are most compatible across all devices
2. Passwords: Avoid rare Unicode characters; stick to common special characters
3. Report issues: Note the exact character causing the problem and the device type

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Encoding Configuration Reference

RADIUS Client Encoding

Configuration: RADIUS Clients → Edit Client → Encoding field

Option	Description
UTF-8 (Recommended)	Supports all characters
ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1)	Western European only
US-ASCII	Basic Latin only
UTF-16	Rarely needed

Database Encoding

Recommended: CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci

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Troubleshooting Workflow

1. Identify corrupted characters — Where do they appear? (logs, database, device)
2. Check encoding at each layer — RADIUS client, database, terminal
3. Test with ASCII-only — If ASCII works, confirms encoding mismatch
4. Update encoding — Change to UTF-8 via the RADIUS Clients page
5. Test thoroughly — All affected usernames, all device types

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Getting Help

If encoding issues persist:

1. Note the exact character causing the problem
2. Document the RADIUS client encoding setting (from RADIUS Clients)
3. Note which device/client is affected
4. Contact Mideye Support with this information