The first question to ask is simply: What are you sitting in front of? Are you really on the console of a VAX or Alpha running OpenVMS? My guess is the answer is no.
In the unlikely event that the answer is yes, simply enter:
$ SHOW TERMINAL
and make sure that the TERM variable on the remote UNIX host matches this exactly.
If my guess is correct and you re sitting in front of a PC or a Mac running some sort of terminal emulator like PuTTY or Terminal, then you need to explore your software s options to ensure that the terminal it s emulating is correctly reflected in both the VMS system s world view and that of the remote UNIX host.
Once you ve figured out what kind of terminal you re emulating, use the VMS command above once again on the VMS system you re connected to to ensure that there is a match.
If not, simply correct the situation by typing:
$ SET TERMINAL/DEVICE=(your termainal name - e.g. vt100)
and then make sure that TERM on the remote unix host matches what the VMS system is set to.
Once you do all this, everything should work fine.