Utf8/irssi
You too can get UTF-8 with irssi. However, you need at least version 0.8.10, which you can get here: http://irssi.org/download. Nowadays, most distributions come with this version, but if you're on an old system, you'll have to install it yourself. How you do that is beyond the scope of this document.
So, what do I do now that I've installed irssi 0.8.10+? Simple: in irssi do "/set term_charset UTF-8", and you're set! No need to restart either.
If this didn't work for you, the reason is probably that your terminal isn't running in a UTF-8 compatible mode.
screen
Supposedly, all you should need to do when using screen is (with default binds):
- "Ctrl+a ⇒ : ⇒ utf8 on on" and enter.
This should switch the current window's encoding to utf8 for you.
However, next time you detach/reattach to your screen session, it will no longer be utf8 unless you reattach using the -U parameter, like so: "screen -UDR [session]", or you can do the "Ctrl+a ⇒ : ⇒ utf8 on on" thing again. Up to you. Note however that with the text already on the screen, this will not work; only for "new" text.
PuTTY
In PuTTY's settings window, go to:
- "Window ⇒ Translation ⇒ Received data assumed to be in which character set:". And set it to "UTF-8".
Maybe save the settings as well, if you don't want to have to repeat the procedure next time you connect.
A note about fonts: normal PuTTY will only use the specific font you set in "Window ⇒ Appearance ⇒ Font Settings", so if that font doesn't have all the glyphs needed to display the characters, they will look weird. However, there are versions out there that will use whichever font has the glyphs needed for the specific characters that need them.
rxvt-unicode
Works out of the box, no real settings should need to be made. Just irssi's and screen's if you use it.
Others
No clue. Read man.