It's possible that the servers you're logging in on don't have
xterm defined -- that's your default terminal type in Slackware nowadays (do
to see that). Of course, if you're using some other distribution on your system, that definition may be different.
I've experienced the same sort of thing going to multiple servers (like Solaris, for example) where I simply do
when I get there -- most systems do support
xterm, but if they don't then try
vt100 or
vt220 or something similar. Just
echo ${TERM} when you get logged on and see what that default may be then reset it to whatever you want.
Hope this helps some.