backspace key binding!!

[Stevens, Brigham]

I just got a new linux server running…. It has emacs and I use it under ssh..

I don’t know the emacs version, but this is probably an easy generic question….

The backspace key is bound to some awful help command, and it won’t backup and delete characters like it is supposed to!! It is really bad because when I hit backspace the screen splits and this page comes up, and it totally ruins whatever I was typing…

I do not have a special .emacs or anything, I am only running the emacs defaults.

ALSO, I want the DELETE key to be bound to forward delete char…

ALSO, I would like to configure my root account to use all the settings from a user account – is there any way to do this? I guess that is more of a unix/linux question…

Thanks for any help!