Making the Effort to Network the Right Way

Networking is not something that is accomplished at an event; it?s a process. Many attorneys tell us that they?ve tried to network and it hasn?t worked for them. When we ask what they?ve done, they usually tell us that they went to a few events, got nothing out of them and then stopped going. This is not how the process works. It can take years to build up your network to a level that translates into new business. There are no shortcuts to building relationships. Like most things that are worth doing, the process of networking takes time, effort and dedication.

Tool Kit: Improving Your Home Network

That surprising fact about Netgear should tell you all you need to know about the state of home networking. Unstable connections force users to start their routers every few weeks. Thick walls dull Wi-Fi signals. Poorly located routers mean a Wi-Fi signal can’t reach an entire house. And slow connection speeds can make any sort of downloading or streaming a drag.

In short, setting up the ideal home network is often easier said than done. There are ways, however, to make it less aggravating and more reliable. You just need to be willing to experiment.

To start, consider where your router is. Hiding it under the kitchen sink may be good for aesthetics, but it won’t make for the best possible wireless connection.

To maximize coverage, your router must be out in the open. Router manufacturers say that, ideally, it should be in the center of the house.

That may not be easy, if the coaxial or telephone cable that carries the Internet signal into your house is in a corner or — most likely — the side of the house closest to the street. Like it or not, that’s where you’ll have to connect your router.

Most modern routers operate in two bands, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, and you can choose the band you want. The 2.4Ghz signal travels farther but is susceptible to interference from common household appliances, like microwave ovens, wireless landline phones and vacuum cleaners. (That’s another reason not to keep your router in your kitchen.)

You should also consider upgrading your router, which typically costs $100 or less. The most popular Wi-Fi standard is called 802.11n. If you are using an older router, with an 802.11b or g technology, get an 802.11n router.

To experience improved range and speed, your devices must be able to receive the same standard used by the router. Otherwise, it will drop back to the slower standard. But unless you are still using an early iPhone or a pretty old computer, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Even if you have an 802.11n router, you might consider getting a new one if your signal is disappointing.

The industry is now introducing 802.11ac, a new standard that promises greater range and faster connection speeds. But only a handful of devices, including Apple’s latest iMacs and MacBook Air, actually support it. You can also buy an 802.11ac adapter for about $90. If you choose not to, buying an 802.11ac router now may not be much help.

The newest routers do, however, often include updated technologies that can improve coverage and speed, no matter what standard you use.

Some carriers, like AT&T, will provide consumers with a combination modem and router. And if you don’t like that router, you can still use your own and plug it into the combination unit. Your devices will show both routers but use the one you prefer. You can also go to the router’s Web site setup page and disable the combination router’s signal.

Many dropped wireless connections can be solved by ensuring that your router is using the latest software, or firmware. Most manufacturers’ Web site setup screens will automatically check to confirm that the latest version is installed and prompt you to download it.

Unfortunately, the download process can be clunky. First, you need to know how to get to the setup screen, which few people do. (To get to Belkin’s setup Web page, for example, type in 192.168.2.1. For a Netgear router, type “routerlogin.net.” If you’ve misplaced your router’s manual, to find the proper I.P. sign-in address, do a Web search for the router and its sign-in. Once there, you often have to download the software and manually install it, which can also be a challenge.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 3, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the bands that most modern routers operate in. They are 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, not 2.4Mhz and 5Mhz.

Making the Effort to Network the Right Way

Networking is not something that is accomplished at an event; it?s a process. Many attorneys tell us that they?ve tried to network and it hasn?t worked for them. When we ask what they?ve done, they usually tell us that they went to a few events, got nothing out of them and then stopped going. This is not how the process works. It can take years to build up your network to a level that translates into new business. There are no shortcuts to building relationships. Like most things that are worth doing, the process of networking takes time, effort and dedication.

Food Network Drops Paula Deen

A network spokeswoman said it would not renew Ms. Deen’s contract when it expired at the end of June. Ms. Deen has faced a volley of criticism this week over her remarks in a deposition for a discrimination lawsuit by a former employee. In the document, she admitted she had used racial epithets, tolerated racist jokes and condoned pornography in the workplace.

The Food Network statement did not elaborate on its reasons for dropping her, but a person close to the network said its shows featuring her sons, Jamie and Bobby, would not be affected. Ms. Deen currently has three regular programs on the network, including “Paula’s Best Dishes.”

Those shows were part of a small culinary business empire run by Ms. Deen, 66, who has produced numerous cookbooks, lent her name to household products from butter to mattresses, and served as a spokeswoman for Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Smithfield Foods. She and her sons own and operate The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga. Her magazine “Cooking with Paula Deen,” has a circulation of nearly one million, her Web site says.

In her first video on Friday, posted on YouTube and later removed, Ms. Deen, near tears, said: “I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I’ve done. I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate and hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable.”

In a longer video posted later in the afternoon, she appeared more composed. “Your color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter,” she said.

She added: “I was wrong, yes, I’ve worked hard, and I have made mistakes, but that is no excuse and I offer my sincere apology to those that I have hurt, and I hope that you forgive me because this comes from the deepest part of my heart.”

In yet a third video on YouTube, posted Friday afternoon, Ms. Deen apologized to Matt Lauer, the host of “Today,” for not appearing for a scheduled exclusive interview earlier in the day. She had agreed to the interview, extensively promoted by NBC News, to address the uproar generated by her deposition.

Clearly irritated by the absence of Ms. Deen, a regular guest on the show, Mr. Lauer told viewers that she had spoken with him on Thursday, agreed to an “open and candid” discussion and had flown to New York City. But in the morning, he said, she had her representatives cancel, citing exhaustion.

Ms. Deen has managed to offend even her most uncritical fans before, most recently in January 2012 when she announced she had Type 2 diabetes on the same day she endorsed the diabetes drug Victoza and a lucrative collaboration with Novo Nordisk, the drug’s manufacturer. Because she had built her career on a no-holds-barred approach to sugar and fat (creating recipes like a cheeseburger patty sandwiched between two doughnuts and a Better than Sex cake made with cake mix, pudding mix, and heavy cream), she was roundly criticized for encouraging an unhealthy diet for others, hiding her illness and then trying to profit from it.

On Thursday, criticism of her racial remarks mounted on Twitter — even spawning a sarcastic hashtag, #paulasbestdishes — and on Ms. Deen’s own Facebook page.

The lawsuit against her was filed in March 2012 by Lisa T. Jackson, the general manager of Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, a restaurant that Ms. Deen owned with her brother, Earl (Bubba) Hiers. Ms. Jackson, who is white, said that her father was Sicilian, with dark skin, and that she had suffered prejudice as a result.

In the deposition, Ms. Deen said that she had used a racial slur in the past, though not in the restaurant, but that she and her family did not tolerate prejudice. “Bubba and I, neither one of us, care what the color of your skin is” or what gender a person is, she said. “It’s what’s in your heart and in your head that matters to us.”

She also stated that “most jokes” are about Jews, gay people, black people and “rednecks.”

“I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person,” she said.

USA Network to Explore Sitcoms and Reality Shows

For most of the past decade the USA Network has lived by the mantra “blue skies,” which has translated into programming a string of upbeat hourlong drama hits, like “Burn Notice” and “Royal Pains.”

That strategy has paid off, with USA ranking as the most-watched entertainment network on cable for eight straight years. So why is the network going to make a new pitch to advertisers on May 16 that emphasizes areas previously little explored by USA, like situation comedy and reality shows?

The most obvious reason: USA paid a hefty price — $1 million to $1.5 million an episode — three years ago to acquire reruns of the hugely popular ABC comedy “Modern Family.” Those episodes become available this fall, so a shift toward some comedy-based nights was inevitable.

But the network’s top program executives also acknowledge that in order to grow, and to maintain the top position in a competitive cable environment, it is time to branch out into new programming directions.

At its advertiser presentation next week, USA is expected to announce that it has ordered its first two original sitcoms, as well as several new reality shows, and a new drama that breaks with the USA tradition by taking a bit of a walk on the dark side.

“One of the dances any network does, and we’re doing one now, is the balance between breadth and depth,” said Jeff Wachtel, the co-president of USA. “We are a very broad general entertainment network in a world that is increasingly about the depth of the commitment.”

He added, “We have a reservoir of good will. Now that’s great, but it’s also a trap. Because if anybody imputes a formula to you, you really are in danger of being formulaic. We’ve got to challenge the audience.”

Other cable networks have been doing that with great success: A&E has the reality hit “Duck Dynasty;” History collected big audiences for “The Bible;” FX has forged a reputation for dark dramas like “Justified;” and AMC has the biggest drama in all of television with “The Walking Dead.”

“There are a lot of networks infringing on USA’s territory,” said Derek Baine, a media analyst with SNL Kagan. “Changing the program lineup can be done. You just have to tread carefully because it can be jarring for the audience.”

USA’s numbers are unquestionably potent. Under Bonnie Hammer, who now is the chairwoman of the cable entertainment group for NBCUniversal, USA has been a profit machine. In 2012, the network exceeded $1 billion in profit for the first time, and it projects the number to be higher in 2013.

USA still has the top overall audience among cable entertainment networks with an average of 2.92 million viewers, ahead of the 2.43 million for the History Channel. USA is down slightly, 2 percent, this season.

It has remained No. 1, though narrowly, over TBS in one of the two audience groups that dominates sales to advertisers — viewers ages 25 to 54. But it trails TBS this season so far in the most important audience category, viewers ages 18 to 49.

That might not be bad news for USA, however, and not only because TBS gets a springtime bounce from college and pro basketball. The big winner for TBS is its package of repeats of the hit CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” which runs as often as 16 to 20 times a week on TBS.

Chris McCumber, the network’s other co-president, said USA would most likely use “Modern Family” much as TBS has used “Big Bang” — all over its schedule, sometimes filling a whole night of prime time.

“We want to be careful not to overuse it,” Mr. McCumber said. “But we think it will raise all boats in prime time.”

There is some question about whether “Modern Family” can perform as “Big Bang” has. It is a filmed comedy without a laugh track, and those tend to repeat less well than taped shows with audience laughter.

Bits Blog: New Phone by Facebook to Showcase Its Network

Valentin Flauraud/Reuters Facebook has been putting increasing focus on its mobile products for over two years.

8:45 p.m. | Updated

Facebook users post more photos, write more status updates and hit the like button more often from mobile devices than they do from computers. So it was almost inevitable that Facebook would introduce a smartphone that put its social network front and center.

On Thursday, Facebook plans to unveil the first smartphone created to showcase its social network. The phone, made by HTC, uses a version of Google’s Android software, according to two people briefed on the announcement, which will be made at a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

The software is designed so that some of the core features of the phone, like the camera, will be built around Facebook’s services, according to one of the people, who is a Facebook employee. Both people briefed on Facebook’s plans spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the product before the formal announcement.

Derick Mains, a Facebook spokesman, declined to share details of the event. But he said it would be a “significant mobile-focused announcement.” The invitation sent to members of the news media says, “Come see our new home on Android.”

For Facebook and any other online business that is supported by ads, mobile is a tough puzzle to crack. It is difficult to get people to look at advertisements on smaller screens, where display space is limited, without becoming too intrusive.

Facebook’s business strategy is to persuade people to congregate around its social network as much as possible and eventually show them more ads. That is why, over the last year, Facebook has been revamping its organization to be “mobile first.” Every team at Facebook is involved somehow in its mobile products. And the company has recruited engineers who specialize in mobile phone development, including former Apple employees who worked on the development of the iPhone.

The Facebook employee familiar with the announcement said that when the Facebook phone is turned on, it will immediately display a Facebook user’s home screen. A phone with a strong Facebook focus would prompt customers to use Facebook more than competing apps and services. But the success of such a device would depend on how much support the handset received from wireless carriers, said Chetan Sharma, an independent telecommunications analyst who consults for carriers. The carriers can choose which devices are sold in their stores, as well as how prominently to promote them.

“Unless the phone is in front of the consumers in stores, it’s hard to see how it will gain traction,” Mr. Sharma said.

He said it was difficult to imagine that big carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless would place a serious bet on a Facebook phone from HTC, because that manufacturer’s other phones have not been selling very well. HTC once made a phone called the Cha Cha that had a button for posting photos directly to Facebook, but it sold poorly.

The idea of a Facebook-powered Android phone is not new. In 2008, Inq, a phone maker based in London, released a phone called the Inq1 that integrated Facebook services into crucial areas of the device. In 2011, it said it would release an Android phone called the Inq Cloud Touch, which had some of Facebook’s services integrated into the home screen.

But early last year, Inq pulled the plug on theCloud Touch, saying it would instead focus on other products. Frank Meehan, the former chief executive of Inq, said in an e-mail interview that the Inq had felt too threatened by Samsung Electronics, now the biggest maker of phones in the world, so it abandoned its plans.

“Samsung was already on a path to crush everyone, and we decided to get out of hardware and turned the company into software only,” Mr. Meehan said.

Mr. Meehan said that if HTC released an Android phone with a focus on Facebook, it would still face the problem that Samsung is the dominant player on Android, Sony is gaining traction in mobile and Huawei, a Chinese handset maker, is dominant in Asia. He said it would be better for Facebook to create a special layer that consumers could install on Android devices so the social network would embed more deeply into Android apps and Google services.

“I would see this as a more radical way of providing the social layer functionality on mobile that would really bring the power of Facebook to Android,” he said.

The Facebook employee familiar with plans for the new phone said the stand-alone mobile apps it released over the last two and a half years were essentially experiments to see what worked on mobile devices before rolling them into a Facebook-focused Android phone. This year the company introduced Poke, a private messaging service, as a stand-alone app. Last year, it released a camera app that specialized in tagging and uploading photos to Facebook. In 2011, it introduced Messenger, an app for free text messaging, which was later expanded to include free voice calls.

Facebook has been exploring making its own smartphone for the last two years. But the project, which was at one time code-named “Buffy,” had stalled because the company could not decide whether to make its own hardware or team up with a phone maker.

Facebook’s approach to modifying Google’s Android software is similar to Amazon’s, said a former employee of Facebook who had been briefed on the product. For its Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon removed Google’s apps and promoted its own services, like the Kindle e-book store, Amazon’s video service and Amazon’s own app store. The tablet is essentially an Amazon-powered shopping console.

A smartphone that gives priority to Facebook services is good for Facebook, but it is unclear whether that is something consumers want. Jan Dawson, a telecommunications analyst at Ovum, said the concept was “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

“There are lots of people who love Facebook, but I doubt if any of them feel like they need a more Facebook-centric experience on their phones,” he said. “There isn’t anything obviously missing.”

He agreed that it was unlikely that wireless companies would put much support behind such a device, because they are already worried about the way Google and Facebook are supplanting carriers in people’s minds as providers of content and communication services.

Making the Effort to Network the Right Way

Networking is not something that is accomplished at an event; it?s a process. Many attorneys tell us that they?ve tried to network and it hasn?t worked for them. When we ask what they?ve done, they usually tell us that they went to a few events, got nothing out of them and then stopped going. This is not how the process works. It can take years to build up your network to a level that translates into new business. There are no shortcuts to building relationships. Like most things that are worth doing, the process of networking takes time, effort and dedication.

Making the Effort to Network the Right Way

Networking is not something that is accomplished at an event; it?s a process. Many attorneys tell us that they?ve tried to network and it hasn?t worked for them. When we ask what they?ve done, they usually tell us that they went to a few events, got nothing out of them and then stopped going. This is not how the process works. It can take years to build up your network to a level that translates into new business. There are no shortcuts to building relationships. Like most things that are worth doing, the process of networking takes time, effort and dedication.

DealBook: Dish Network Makes Bid for Clearwire

Not so fast Sprint.

On Tuesday, Dish Network made an unsolicited bid for the wireless network operator Clearwire, trumping a previous offer by its majority shareholder Sprint Nextel.

Under the proposal, Dish Network is bidding $3.30 a share, 11 percent more than Sprint. The bid by Dish Network values Clearwire at roughly $2.4 billion.

Sprint, which owns more than 50 percent of Clearwire, contends that the rival’s bid is “inferior.” In response to the offer, Sprint outlined that the Dish Network proposal was “illusory” and “not viable,” given the conditions of its current deal with Clearwire.

Dish Network and Sprint are vying for access to viable spectrum.

Dish Network have been steadily acquiring spectrum assets in recent years. In 2011, Dish Network bought the satellite operator DBSD North America out of bankruptcy, gaining access to broadband spectrum. Last month, the company won a critical regulatory ruling, gaining the right to convert some satellite airwaves for cellphone service.

With Clearwire, Sprint is hoping to expand its next generation of data services. Sprint is building out its Long Term Evolution, or LTE, network, which can support the latest smartphones like the iPhone 5.

Sidley Austin Looks to Riverbed to Build a Broader Network

Sidley Austin had a legacy network connecting its 17 offices in the U.S., Asia and Europe, resulting in slow data transfers and limiting the firm's ability to centralize IT resources. To create better connectivity between offices, the firm upgraded its network with Riverbed appliances.

Delays in Network Upgrades Take Toll on Ericsson Profit

The company, based in Stockholm, said net profit in the three months through September fell to 2.2 billion Swedish kronor, or $328 million, from 3.8 billion kronor a year earlier, as sales fell 2 percent to 54.6 billion kronor.

“We see a continued macroeconomic slowdown and political unrest in parts of the world, which has led to more cautious operator spending,” Hans Vestberg, the Ericsson chief executive, said.

Martin Nilsson, an analyst at Handelsbanken in Stockholm, said Ericsson’s ongoing struggles were also the result of an industrywide oversupply of high-speed network equipment on the global market. In the nine months through September, sales at Ericsson have fallen by 1.5 percent from a year earlier.

Mr. Nilsson said Ericsson and its rivals, Huawei of China, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent, had continued to develop new, faster networks whose ability to handle data far outstripped current demand.

As a result, wireless operators are managing phone grids with a lot of unused capacity and have no pressing need to buy and build newer networks, Mr. Nilsson said.

“Ericsson is in a market that has been structurally flat and slightly declining for a decade,” he said. “Since the year 2000, the level of data traffic on wireless networks has increased about 200 times. But total industry sales are still 5 to 10 percent lower.”

Ericsson’s earnings were also weighed down by continued losses at ST-Ericsson, its chip and handset components venture with the Swiss company STMicroelectronics. Ericsson booked a loss of 600 million kronor at that venture, based in Geneva, after losing 700 million kronor a year earlier.

In a conference call with analysts, Mr. Vestberg said that modest levels of global demand for networking gear had changed little over the past year, as many operators chose to upgrade existing networks rather than build new ones, which weighs on Ericsson’s profit.

The company, as is its practice, gave no forecast for future sales or profitability. Over the long term, Mr. Vestberg said the market for wireless gear remained strong, as rising sales of smartphones encouraged operators to invest in new networks. The number of global smartphone users, which topped one billion in the third quarter, is expected to triple to three billion by 2017, he said.

“The introduction of new devices and applications put higher consumer demands on network performance and quality,” Mr. Vestberg said. “This drives demand for our technology, software and services capabilities.”

Sales in Ericsson’s networks division, which made up 49 percent of sales, fell 17 percent in the third quarter to 26.9 billion kronor from 32.5 billion kronor. Sales of Ericsson’s services business, which made up 45 percent of sales, rose 19 percent to 24.3 billion kronor.

In an interview, Mr. Vestberg said it was possible that Ericsson could soon generate more sales on a quarterly basis from its growing business of servicing networks, which includes installing new equipment to managing networks for operators on an outsourcing basis, than from actually selling network gear, its traditional core activity.

“It is nothing that we target, but of course it could happen,” Mr. Vestberg said. “We had extremely strong equipment sales earlier this year and now we are installing all of that.”

“The market for services is far greater and much less penetrated than the network equipment market,” he added.

In China, Japan and South Korea, Ericsson’s second-largest regional market after North America, sales fell 13 percent to 8.4 billion kronor. Mr. Vestberg said Chinese operators were testing new, networks based on Long Term Evolution, or LTE, technology, but did not buy the gear because the Chinese government had yet to auction the necessary licenses and broadcast spectrum.

Sales also fell 10 percent in Latin America, to 5.4 billion kronor, and sales fell by more than 20 percent in Scandinavia, Russia and the rest of Europe.

In North America, Ericsson’s largest geographic market with 26 percent of global sales, revenue rose 16 percent, to 14 billion kronor. Purchases of LTE equipment by U.S. and Canadian operators offset a 50 percent decline in sales of gear that runs on an older standard, Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, technology, Mr. Vestberg said.

Shares of Ericsson fell 4.6 percent in Stockholm trading to 56.5 kronor.

Sidley Austin Looks to Riverbed to Build a Broader Network

Sidley Austin had a legacy network connecting its 17 offices in the U.S., Asia and Europe, resulting in slow data transfers and limiting the firm's ability to centralize IT resources. To create better connectivity between offices, the firm upgraded its network with Riverbed appliances.