Terminal Not Providing login: Prompt

[Jason C. Wells]

When I use 'tip' I seem to bee connected, but I get no login prompt.

$ tip sio0
connected

and nothing else.

If I telnet to the receiving host and redirect a file to the serial 
line, I do see data being transmitted.  The formatting is a bit off though.

(remote)$ cat /etc/issue
(remote)$Hello there!
(remote)$
(remote)$This is a serial line terminal.

(remote)$ cat /etc/issue > /dev/ttyd0
(local)Hello there!
(local)
(local)      This is a serial line terminal.
        ^^^^^^
        extra spaces are garbage output

Every document I have read assumes that your terminal will just work.  I 
am connecting a FreeBSD host to a FreeBSD host using default 9600 baud 
settings and things aren't working well.  It's probably pretty hard to 
determine the fix for my problem via email.  Can anyone point me to a 
reference that is comprehensive regarding unix serial communications and 
terminals?

Or am I making this harder than it should be?

Thanks,
Jason C. Wells