note Beechbone Got it: <code> Perl: a7 53 64 81 c6 0a 30 b9 C: c2 a7 53 64 c2 81 c3 86 0a 30 c2 b9 </code> So the internal strings of Net::SSH::Perl got "infected" with the UTF-8 bit. Seems some of the strings it gets are declared in a "use utf8" area (but are 7bit themselves).<p> Now, as what Net::SSH::Perl gives to Cypher::* are binary data (byte strings) regardless of the input strings (character strings), how would I best fix that?<p> I see three possibilities:<p> 1) Fix Net::SHH::Perl to make a difference between character strings it gets and the byte strings it uses to build the SSH protocol in it.<p> 2) Change our code to disable the UTF8 bit on every string that is given to Net::SSH::Perl.<p> 3) Change Crypt::* to turn the UTF8 bit off on data that is 8 characters long.<p> I'd say #1 would be the cleanest way and #3 the fastest. As we have a deadline of this afternoon for a complete program run, I will implement #3 as a workaround fast. But, what should we do on the long run?<p> BTW: Thank you to all who helped, tried to help, or would have helped if they could.<p> <hr> Update:<p> <strike>HELP, How DO I do this? I've got the String as above labeled 'Perl' with UTF8 on. When I just disable the flag, I get the 'bad' String, as labelled with 'C'. So how do I convert that string to a string of 8 bytes with the values as they should be?</strike><p> <hr> Update2:<p> Ok, I found that, too. <code>utf8::downgrade($data);</code> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-85294"> <hr><small>_Search, Ask, ^Know</small> </div></div> 400934 400965