Unix to Linux telnet problem

I am telneting from a FreeBSD machine to a Slakware Linux box. When I go to edit crontabs or open up a vi session it tell me that the terminal is not fully functional and does not let me edit anything. My guess is that I am probably using different TERM types but I do not know how to correct the problem. I have looked in the .profile, .login but am still trying to find out how to do it. I am sure there is a simple solution…..