so tab completion works fine when i ssh via the terminal but when i use putty it brings up a carrot symbol (I think) im sure its just a setting sumwhere.caint copy and paste text using putty either figure ill find the settings for all this sumwhere just no luck so far.

What do you mean by "ssh via the terminal" ?
Do you mean login to the directly attached terminal ?

I take it you are using the same login from both logins ?

This can be caused by a couple of different settings.
If you are using different logins on the different terminals then it could be to do with the users login shell.
If you are using the same login it could be caused by the terminal type definition.
If you are using the same login it could be caused by the keyboard layout that the terminal is using.

You can compare the shell type by looking through /etc/passwd.
You can compare the terminal type by running "# echo $TERM" once you are logged in, and set it by using "# export TERM='termtype'" where 'termtype' is the value you want it to be.
You'll need to work through the setup of Putty to change the keyboard layout, and/or termtype definition so that they become default settings for you.

Dave

I think zsh has tab completion built in, as does bash. You can try pointing your user account to one of those shells if they're installed.