diff --git a/src/frontend/mosh-server.cc b/src/frontend/mosh-server.cc
index de99f4f..6aacc7e 100644
--- a/src/frontend/mosh-server.cc
+++ b/src/frontend/mosh-server.cc
@@ -393,15 +393,6 @@ int run_server( const char *desired_ip, const char *desired_port,
     /* close server-related file descriptors */
     delete network;
 
-    /* set TERM */
-    const char default_term[] = "xterm";
-    const char color_term[] = "xterm-256color";
-
-    if ( setenv( "TERM", (colors == 256) ? color_term : default_term, true ) < 0 ) {
-      perror( "setenv" );
-      exit( 1 );
-    }
-
     /* ask ncurses to send UTF-8 instead of ISO 2022 for line-drawing chars */
     if ( setenv( "NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS", "1", true ) < 0 ) {
       perror( "setenv" );