Internet & Wi-Fi support

Video How-Tos
FAQ
Guides & Tech tips
Contact support

Video how-tos

How to set up your Wi-Fi System

How to Set Up Your Wi-Fi and App

An Introduction to the Main Dashboard of the App

An Introduction to Quick Links

An introduction to People

MyPrioritiesIQ Modes

Getting to Know Tiles and Announcements

Learn about Notifications

Performing a Speed Test using the App

Learn How to Enable and Disable Services Using the App

Internet FAQ

Residential internet

First, check whether the issue is affecting one device or every device in your home. If all of your devices are offline, make sure your DFT equipment has power and that cables have not been disconnected or damaged. You can also check DFT’s Network & Service Status page for any known outages or maintenance in your area. If your service is still unavailable, contact DFT Technical Support at 716-672-5100.

Restarting your equipment can resolve many temporary connectivity issues. Unplug the power from your DFT-provided router or Wi-Fi equipment, wait approximately 30 seconds, and then reconnect it. Allow several minutes for the equipment to fully restart before testing your connection again.

If you have DFT fiber service, avoid unplugging or disconnecting the fiber cable itself.

Several factors can affect the speed you experience, including whether you are connected through Wi-Fi or Ethernet, the capabilities of your device, the number of devices using the connection, network traffic, and the server or website you are accessing.

For the most accurate test of your internet connection, use a wired Ethernet connection whenever possible. Wi-Fi speed tests measure the performance of both your internet service and your wireless connection.

If devices connected by Ethernet are working normally but wireless devices are having trouble, the issue is likely related to Wi-Fi rather than your DFT internet connection. If both wired and wireless devices are unable to connect, there may be an issue with your internet service or equipment. Check DFT’s Network & Service Status page or contact DFT Technical Support at 716-672-5100 for assistance.

If both wired and wireless devices are unable to connect, there may be an issue with your internet service or equipment. Check DFT’s Network & Service Status page or contact DFT Technical Support at 716-672-5100 for assistance.

DFT fiber internet is generally not affected by normal rain, snow, or other weather conditions. Severe storms can still cause outages if utility poles, fiber lines, power service, or other infrastructure are damaged.

Customers receiving DFT fixed wireless service may occasionally experience changes in performance caused by severe weather, obstructions, or conditions affecting the wireless connection between their location and DFT’s network.

Try to determine whether the problem affects every device or only one device, and whether it happens on both wired and wireless connections. Restarting your router or Wi-Fi equipment may resolve a temporary issue.

If the problem continues, contact DFT Technical Support at 716-672-5100. Our team can help determine whether the issue is related to your internet connection, DFT equipment, Wi-Fi coverage, or an individual device.

DFT Technical Support is available 24/7 at 716-672-5100. You can also submit a support request through the DFT website. For widespread service issues, check the Network & Service Status page for current outage and maintenance information.

Residential Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi signals become weaker as they travel through walls, floors, furniture, and other obstacles. The location and construction of your home can also create areas with weaker coverage.

For the best performance, your Wi-Fi equipment should be placed in an open, central location whenever possible. Larger homes or areas with difficult construction may benefit from additional Wi-Fi access points.

Your internet speed and your Wi-Fi speed are not always the same. Wi-Fi performance can be affected by distance from your router, walls and other obstacles, interference, the capabilities of your device, and how many devices are connected at the same time.

For the highest possible speeds, particularly on multi-gigabit internet plans, a wired Ethernet connection or newer Wi-Fi-capable device may be required.

The 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band generally provides greater range and works well for devices farther away from your router, but it typically offers lower speeds and can experience more interference. The 5 GHz band generally provides faster speeds but has a shorter range. DFT’s managed Wi-Fi equipment can automatically help devices connect using the most appropriate available connection.

The 5 GHz band generally provides faster speeds but has a shorter range. DFT’s managed Wi-Fi equipment can automatically help devices connect using the most appropriate available connection.

Place your router or Wi-Fi access point in an open area and, whenever possible, near the center of your home. Avoid placing it inside cabinets, behind televisions, on the floor, or next to large metal objects and appliances.

Because Wi-Fi travels in all directions, even a small change in equipment placement can sometimes improve coverage significantly.

If other devices are working normally, the problem may be with that individual phone, computer, television, or smart device rather than your DFT service.

Try turning Wi-Fi off and back on, restarting the device, and making sure its software is current. You can also forget your Wi-Fi network on the device and reconnect using your Wi-Fi password.

Customers with compatible DFT-managed Wi-Fi equipment can use the CommandIQ® app to manage and personalize their home network. Depending on your service and equipment, the app can be used to view connected devices, manage network settings, run speed tests, and access additional Wi-Fi tools.

The Internet & Wi-Fi Support page also includes video tutorials covering setup and many of the app’s most common features.

Contact DFT if you are experiencing persistent weak coverage, frequent Wi-Fi disconnections, difficulty connecting multiple devices, or problems that continue after restarting your equipment.

Our Technical Support team can help determine whether the issue is related to your internet connection, Wi-Fi equipment, device placement, coverage, or an individual device. You can contact DFT Technical Support at 716-672-5100.

CommandIQ® 3.0

CommandIQ® 3.0 is the latest version of the easy-to-use mobile app designed to help you take full control of your home Wi-Fi experience. Whether you’re indoors or outdoors, CommandIQ puts powerful tools at your fingertips to manage, personalize, and secure your network.

Need help? Visit the Help Center in the app or contact DFT directly for personalized assistance.

Guides & tech tips

Best security practices for internet safety

This guide is here to give you some basic ideas to help protect yourself online. This guide is not meant to be comprehensive by any means as security issues change rapidly in the computer world, and all of the already existing security issues cannot be covered in a single document. It is meant to provide basic guidelines to help users keep themselves and their computers safe in common situations where users’ security could be compromised. We hope you find this information useful and helpful to improving your experience while online. Using this guide does not guarantee that your computer will not get infected with malware, nor does it guarantee that your identity will not be stolen.

It becomes more and more important as each day passes to have a good anti-virus program running on your computer. It’s one of the easiest and fastest things that a user can do to help prevent their computer from being compromised by viruses, trojan horses, worms, and all the other types of infections crawling around the Internet.

Also with the addition of a lot of legitimate free anti-virus programs available, cost is less of an issue in making the decision to put anti-virus software on the computer. There’s a lot of programs out there to choose from, and making a decision on which one to use is not always easy. Below, we have made recommendations for a free anti-virus program, and a paid one. We currently like these two programs the best, and find that they do the best job of protecting a computer from infection, not harassing the user, and have the least impact on the performance of the computer.

Windows Update is crucial part of keeping your system up to date, and to minimize the risks of your computer being vulnerable to infection. If you don’t have automatic updates turned on in Windows then we would recommend that you turn it on, or setup a schedule where you manually check for updates once every month.

Using a web browser that’s out of date can be just as dangerous as not keeping your anti-virus, or Windows Updates up to date. Use a modern web browser that has the latest updates and security fixes to reduce the risk of your web browser being compromised by an infection.

While surfing the Internet, one of the easiest ways for your computer to get infected with malware are by the advertisements nested in most webpages. We would recommend that you use an Ad Blocker to prevent the ads from being loaded, which reduces the risk of getting an infection from one. It also has the side affect of improving the appearance of many pages that are plastered with ads.

Many malware infections are spread via e-mail attachments. As a general rule, don’t open an attachment regardless of who sent it to you. You can just as easily get a malicious e-mail from someone you know as you could a total stranger.

Now clearly attachments are very useful for getting files from one individual to another, and never opening an e-mail attachment ever would be just as silly never riding a bicycle because there’s a risk that you could fall off. We recommend that if you get an e-mail with an attachment, that you use some means to verify that the attachment is legitimate.

For example:

You have a meeting with a co-worker, and he tells you that he is going to e-mail you a copy of the next year’s budget. 20 minutes later you receive an e-mail from that individual with an excel spreadsheet attachment and the attachment is called New_Budget.xls. Clearly you can open this attachment because the co-worker verified that he was going to send you an e-mail with budget information.

Another example:

A family friend sends you an e-mail with the subject “Look how ridiculous you look in this video”, and it has an attachment that’s called crazy_party.wmv.exe. Regardless of whether you went to a crazy party recently or not, you don’t want to open this attachment. Instead, contact the family friend first. Have them verify that they sent you an e-mail with a video. More often than not, you will find that your family friend did not send you a video, and that their computer is infected with a virus that is trying to spread to all their contacts.

Additionally, the name of the file (crazy_party.wmv.exe) has .exe as the file extension. When .exe is at the end of a file, that file is a program, and not a video. So, if you receive an e-mail, and the file says .exe at the end of it, remember that file is a program, and not a video, or picture, or document.

Another good practice to follow:

If you feel you need to see the contents of an attachment and cannot verify it with the sender, then don’t open the attachment. Instead, save the attachment to your desktop, and then scan the attachment with your anti-virus program. If your anti-virus program says it’s clean, then you are most likely safe to open the attachment.

Make sure that you’re at the site you think you’re at. If you’re suspicious that you are at a malicious website, shopping online, checking web based e-mail, or doing online banking, then check your address bar and make sure that you’re at the website you think you’re at. Often times malicious websites will attempt to look like legitimate websites, and many times they look pretty convincing, but if you check the address bar you can usually see whether the site is legitimate or not.

For Example:

If you’re shopping at Amazon.com, when you look at your address bar, you’ll see something that looks like this:

An example of an Amazon.com listing for a Fire TV Stick.

You’ll notice that at the beginning of the address, it shows http://www.amazon.com/ This is an indicator that you are at the Amazon website because amazon.com appears as the actual .com address that you have visited.

Now take a look at this address:

http://www.amazon.xdealsx.com/Apple-MacBook-MC371LL-15-4-Inch-Laptop/dp/B003G2ZJTG/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1297284659&sr=1-4

You’ll notice in this address that http://www.amazon.xdealsx.com/ appears at the beginning of the address. In this case, you are not actually at amazon.com. Instead you are at xdealsx.com which is not amazon.com, and in this example xdealsx.com would be a malicious website trying to hijack your amazon.com account.

As a note, xdealsx.com is not a real website as of this writing. We only used that name as an example of what a malicious link in your address bar could look like. So, if you’re doing any business online, please check your address bar as a way to verify that you’re at the site that you believe you should be at. It’s one more way that you can reduce the risk of an infection, or identity theft.

Dial-up access numbers

Dial-up access numbers are specific telephone numbers that a computer’s modem dials to connect to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). They link a home or office to your ISP’s servers, allowing data to travel over standard telephone lines.

Local Numbers:

Fredonia: 716.679.4800

Mayville: 716.753.7455

Salamanca: 716.244.9199

Westfield: 716.326.7455

Jamestown: 716.338.0101

Olean: 716.543.4199

Shinglehouse: 814.697.7900

Forestville: 716.965.6100

Contact support

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Give us a call or fill out the form below!

24/7 Tech Support

716-672-5100

Emergency Service Line

716-673-3011

Customer Service

716-673-3000

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