Hi,

> As it is a normal shell environment variable, you can use "setenv TERM
> xterm" in ~/.cshrc or "export TERM=xterm" in ~/.bashrc, regarding to the
> shell you use as default.

If I'm not mistaken, TERM would then be set to "xterm" - even when your
shell is running on a plain console an not under X. Don't know if that
matters much, though. Still I think the previously suggested method of
setting the proper X resource is the way to go.

Best regards,
Dominik