Can I use these Special characters in a URL/file name?

Want to make sure this is compatible across the board...

[Canton]

We're hosting on a Windows server, and while I know this means that files are not case sensitive in the browser, I don't know if they can be viewed by everyone (I can see them fine in MSIE).

Basically, the file names have special characters in them, like this example:

[abc.com...]

I know that the dashes are fine, so my question revolves around the "!" and the parentheses. I know that special characters show up in tracking URLs and in dynamically generated content all the time (usually after a "?" in the URL).

These pages, however, have the special character(s) actually in the file names.

Anyone know if these are universally viewable (every browser, every version, etc.)?

Thanks in advance,

~Canton

[txbakers]

I can't speak for every browser, but I think if you stay away from the keyword (er..keyChars?) like the? and the / and the =, etc. You should be OK.

I don't recall ever seeing parentheses in a URL before, but the tilde was common for a long time so why not parentheses. the hyphen is still widely used as well.

Give it a whirl, it won't be a crisis to fix.