-- под виндой
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'char%';
'character_set_client', 'utf8'
'character_set_connection', 'utf8'
'character_set_database', 'utf8'
'character_set_filesystem', 'binary'
'character_set_results', 'utf8'
'character_set_server', 'utf8'
'character_set_system', 'utf8'
'character_sets_dir', 'C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\share\charsets\'
select version();
5.5.31-0+wheezy1

-- под дебиан
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'char%';
'character_set_client', 'utf8'
'character_set_connection', 'utf8'
'character_set_database', 'utf8'
'character_set_filesystem', 'binary'
'character_set_results', 'utf8'
'character_set_server', 'utf8'
'character_set_system', 'utf8'
'character_sets_dir', '/usr/share/mysql/charsets/'
select version();
'5.1.32-community'

// Строка соединения 
"Driver={MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver};Server=127.0.0.1;Database=ddd;User=root;Password=xxxxx;Option=3";

ALTER DATABASE `tis` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci; 

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS tis DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;