ANSI text?

this is a snippted i got from a website its not exactly your soloution but gives bit of idea of how to manipulate the file eoncoding

http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread132421.html#

using (Stream fileStream = new FileStream(file.FileLocation, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
using (Stream destStream = new FileStream(destinationPath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write,
FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
using (var reader = new BinaryReader(fileStream))
{
using (var writer = new BinaryWriter(destStream, Encoding.GetEncoding(1256)))
{
var srcBytes = new byte[fileStream.Length];
reader.Read(srcBytes, 0, srcBytes.Length);

writer.Write(srcBytes);

}
}
}
}

another link
http://bytes.com/topic/visual-basic-net/answers/354876-write-textfile-ansi-format

this is another example but it converts to utf-8
    ' Convert a windows-1252 text file to utf-8.
        Dim cc As New Chilkat.Charset()

        cc.UnlockComponent("anything for 30-day trial")

        Dim byteData As Byte()
        byteData = cc.ReadFile("windows-1252.txt")

        cc.FromCharset = "windows-1252"
        cc.ToCharset = "utf-8"

        Dim utf8Bytes As Byte()
        utf8Bytes = cc.ConvertData(byteData)

        ' Write the utf-8 bytes to a text file.
        cc.WriteFile("utf8.txt", utf8Bytes)

        ' Display the utf8 string.
        Dim s As String
        s = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(utf8Bytes)
        MsgBox(s)

        ' Save any string to a file in various encodings:
        cc.WriteStringToFile(s, "iso-8859-1.txt", "iso-8859-1")
        cc.WriteStringToFile(s, "utf8_again.txt", "utf-8")
        cc.WriteStringToFile(s, "windows1252_again.txt", "windows-1252")

this will do it
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/.NET/Q_22559474.html

I believe that this is related to the BOM (Byte Order Mark) that is expected to be at the start of a UNICODE file, but rarely, if ever seen in in-memory variables.

I do not have much experience with .NET, but I think that you can create a StreamWriter that actually outputs to memory rather than to a file.  It would involve something like:

MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();

StreamWriter streamWriter = new StreamWriter( memStream, Encoding.Default );

streamWriter.Write( "some text" );

 ... maybe close ht MemoryStream?  Maybe then read from it into a string variable?  Or send it to the Response object.....

Sorry, I'm just guessing at this point.

Yes it is.  But...

First verify that this is the problem.  Locate a file that works.  Then open it in Visual Studio in "Binary" format (not default and not text).  My guess is that you will see that it is UNICODE (a zero after every character) and that there is a peculiar sequence at the beginning.

Knowing that sequence, you must just use byte-by-byte writing to simulate that sequence and the following data.  It would probably be beter to find a tool that does it automatically, thus my suggestion.

There is no BOM there, so my guess seems to be wrong.

Are you saying that if you send that file -- as a file -- the 3rd party program will accept it?  If so, show a typical code sequence that will work, given that file.

If so, perhaps all you need to to is convert to 8-bit characters in the Response.Write line.  Something like:

Response.Write(
    System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes( objStringBuilder.ToString )
);

just use inline with your headers.. that will work:

Sub Page_Load()

        Dim objStringBuilder As StringBuilder
        objStringBuilder = New StringBuilder()

        objStringBuilder.Append("some text here")

        Response.Clear()
        Response.ContentType = "text/plain"
        Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "inline; filename=file.nrl")
        Response.Write(objStringBuilder.ToString)
        Response.End()

End sub

sorry i didnt go through your question and this post.
ok so can you try adding this:

        Dim objStringBuilder As StringBuilder
        objStringBuilder = New StringBuilder()
        objStringBuilder.Append("some text here")

        Response.Clear()
        Response.ContentType = "text/plain"
        Response.Charset = "charset=us-ascii"
        Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=file.nrl")
        Response.Write(objStringBuilder.ToString())
        Response.End()


use attachment or inline... depending on your situation.

replace
Response.Charset = "charset=us-ascii"

to

Response.Charset = "us-ascii"