[eluser]porquero[/eluser]
Is better way don't encode/decode strings. I recomend you to use utf-8 encoding.
Some tips:
Files must have utf-8 charset with unix(lf)
AND
use html metas:
Code:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
AND
Use Database charsert utf-8.
If you use Mysql: "SET NAMES utf8"
ALSO you can use .htaccess to force default charset:
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
More info: Search for "UTF-8: The Secret of Character Encoding"