I recently upgraded the WordPress install on BlueHost at Kargs.net. The install and upgrade were done using the Fanstastico user interface. After the install, I found that some of the characters in the older postings (mostly the quote character) were shown as unusual characters. After a number of searches, I found the solution.
1. Modify the wp-config.php by commenting out
//define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
//define('DB_COLLATE', '');
2. Modify the wp-config-sample.php by commenting out
//define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
//define('DB_COLLATE', '');
The second file, wp-config-sample.php, is used to prevent breakage in future upgrades.