You might like to give PuTTY a try -- it is really worth it. It is the best ssh client for windows I am aware of, is free software/open source and able to send all of the special characters over. Of course it also supports ansi colors. Give it a try, if you need a good terminal emulation for windows which supports both ssh and telnet (useful for reading websites *gg*), you won't regret it.
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use signature; signature(" So long\nAlfie");