In terms of features, the new BlackArmor devices roll out the usual litany offered by high-end NAS units: two Gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB ports, hot-swappable drives, iTunes and DNLA server capabilities, RAID Level 0, 1, 10, and 5 support, and remote access. It comes with a small on-board LED for status info on its otherwise monolithic black exterior, and lets you encrypt everything on the drives from individual files to entire volumes.

Whether the dueling hard drive giants can beat the likes of Buffalo, Netgear, and other networking companies at their own game remains to be seen, but at least WD and Seagate are now on the field competing.

Xeno comes in two flavors: Pro and Ultra, with the biggest difference between the two being that Ultra has twice the onboard memory (256MB) than the Pro. Both featured a new networking processor as well as integrated audio to help improve the in-game chatting experience. They also sport a new form factor, now requiring an open PCI Express slot whereas the first-generation Killer cards needed only a PCI slot. Along with improved bandwidth control, the additional memory and new interface (and its superior throughput) promise reduced latency that can impact both game play and real-time trash talking.

The Xeno Pro is slated to cost $129.99 and be available from gaming PC company (well, subsidiary of Dell) Alienware and component maker EVGA in April. The Xeno Ultra, which also features an on-card LED display for call, game, and network info, will be on sale the following month from online tech retailers. For you hardcore fraggers, is this add-on worth the price? Let us know in the TalkBack section.

The biggest news is that the ix2 now supports BitTorrent for all those nice-and-legal downloads you want to grab from your peer-to-peers, and catches up to competitors by offering remote access to its files from any computer, though there is a catch. While the first year of remote access is free, Iomega is charging $9.95 per year after that. The company provides a performance improvement in the form of "jumbo frame" support, which provides more bandwidth for larger file transfers. It has also instituted a folder quota system to let you set limits on the size of folders on the device so you can prevent them from getting too large and crowding out other files and folders.

The ix2 still lacks iTunes server support, but is otherwise pretty full featured for a $299.95 1TB version (or $479.95 for 2GB), including two USB ports. Gigabit Ethernet connection, RAID Level 1 compatibility and support for UPnP and DNLA devices in addition to its new features. The design is a bit underwhelming, however, and it lacks the hot-swappable drives of its more expensive four-bay sibling.

What else should make the cut as new features of the iPhone (and iPod Touch)? Since this is a networking blog, let's focus on the devices' Wi-Fi functionality. What could be done to improve this aspect? Apple may not want you to do so, but checking out what's hot in the world of jailbroken iPhone apps is always instructive, as its limitations are overcome—even running official iPhone Store apps in the background. While AT&T has mentioned that the iPhone will eventually be allowed to share its Wi-Fi connections with your laptop, no timeline has been announced. In the meantime, jailbreak app PDAnet already offers the capability without any potential added costs AT&T may tack on. It'd sure be nice if Apple is set to include this feature without letting its sole U.S. cellular partner add fees to our data plans.

Another annoyance that hopefully will be shed in version 3.0 is needing to drill down into the Settings menu every time you want to turn the Wi-Fi mode on or off. Again, a jailbreak app has already remedied that irritant: SBsettings gives you one screen on which you can make adjustments to popular settings, including toggling Wi-Fi on and off.

Are there other refinements Apple should offer when it comes to Wi-Fi capabilities in iPhone OS 3.0? Let us know in the TalkBack section, and we'll see if any of them show up during Apple's event tomorrow.

According to telecommunications market research firm Dell'Oro Group, Cablevision gained a whopping 70 percent more subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2008 than it did in the previous quarter, while the overall market declined 10 percent. Dell'Oro attributes the subscriber growth in large part to the free Wi-Fi. It's little surprise, then, that Comcast has since started its own free Wi-Fi trial for subscribers in northern New Jersey.

Is free Wi-Fi in your local area (including on your commute) a feature that would influence your decision on broadband providing, or keep you from switching providers? Let us know the our TalkBack section.

On its surface, ReadyNAS Vault doesn't sound so different from the online backup features that some NAS manufacturers make available to their customers. You pay a monthly fee ($5.95 for basic, $19.95 for business) to back up files to Netgear's own data center, which can be accessed remotely from any Web browser. Iomega offers a similar service with Mozy for $4.95 per month for consumers with its StorCenter Pro ix4-100 NAS drive, or priced per gigabyte of storage for business users. The Vault does seem to be tightly integrated with the ReadyNAS administrative interface, though, and you can monitor and adjust backup jobs from any browser. You can also manage multiple drives from a single login. Like Mozy's business service, ReadyNAS Vault can detect any changes to files on a network and then automatically back them up online.

No doubt other NAS makers will start integrating online backup better in their offerings as a result of ReadyNAS Vault. And the advantage of offsite backup that doesn't require saving to your own external drive and then keeping that drive in a safe alternative location will appeal especially to small businesses. Whether this constitutes a revolution in "cloud backup" is open to debate, but ReadyNAS owners can give the Vault service a spin for free for 30 days to test out its advantages.

As with the My Book World, that new capacity comes in the form of WD's Caviar Green drive, which run quieter and consume less power than conventional hard drives. A firmware upgrade (also available for owners of previous ShareSpaces) promises 30-percent improvement in file reading and writing times, while the device is now a DLNA-certified media server in addition to its iTunes server capabilities. The ShareSpace still has an additional full slate of features, including three USB ports, including one front-mounted port that you can connect an external drive to and then hit a button to transfer all its file to the NAS device. It also supports RAID Level 0, 1, and 5 configurations, and comes with the same automatic backup software that the My Book World now ships with.

The bad news: Since 2TB drives have just hit the market, the 8TB ShareSpace costs a lot. $1,799.99, to be exact. Clearly, that configuration is positioned for small- and medium-sized enterprises. You'll spend much less if you go for the 2TB ($699.99) or 4TB ($999.99) varieties, instead. All three are now available at Western Digital's online store.

The new AirPort Extreme is now available for $179, while the updated Time Capsule router/network drive is $299 for 500GB of storage and $499 for 1GB. Time Capsule also now works with Apple's MobileMe service to give you remote access to your files saved on Time Capsule's drive.

No sooner is there a rumor that Apple is planning an event (in this case, a March 24 one) than speculation begins on what the company is going to announce during its presentation (presumably a Jobs-less one this time). Already there's talk of fresh versions of Mac desktops, and Engadget is reporting that new versions of Apple's AirPort Extreme router and Time Capsule router/network storage have reached the FCC.

Since both devices already work on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz channels, Engadget speculates that the new units may work on those frequencies simultaneously. In fact, correspondence on the FCC Web site here and here seems to confirm this. There are no other noteworthy details that can be gleaned from the documentation, such as new capacities for the Time Capsule. As you probably already know, the 5GHz channel is lot less crowded with interference from other devices like cordless phones, which can impact 2.4GHz-based networking. This simultaneously dual-band support is still fairly uncommon among new networking products—no doubt related to cost considerations—but price has never been a big concern when it comes to Apple's product launches anyway.

Obviously, SheevaPlug's form factor is designed to connect to external storage, rather than hold any of its own. Using the plug computer and a drive with a USB port, you can quickly roll your own network storage with the computer attached to a router. While the platform may appeal to Internet and TV providers, there's already a consumer device announced that uses SheevaPlug. The Pogoplug (pictured) costs $79 for pre-orders and will ship in March. In addition to letting you locate the attached USB storage on Macs and Windows computers, it lets you access its files via a Web browser or even your iPhone.

Marvell is also offering the SheevaPlug development kit for $99, which includes the SheevaPlug computer. Whether this whole concept will fly is still to be determined, of course, but you have to give Marvell credit for "plugging into" something a little bit different.

If it works as well as it sounds, My Book's new continuous backup function is just the type of simplicity people demand out of network storage: you can set it up to automatically save a copy of every new file on your network to the drive. This compares favorably to having set up a backup routine of some kind, even if it occurs at regular intervals. WD also uses its Green Power Drives in the new My Book; they run cooler and are a third more power-efficient than other drives.

The drive, clad in Mac-friendly white plastic, also comes with the usual gallery of features today's NAS devices should offer: iTunes and DLNA server capabilities, browser-based remote access to files, a USB port to attach an external drive for additional storage, Gigabit Ethernet port, etc. The 1TB version of the My Book World Edition is available now for $229.99, while the 2TB version will ship next month for $449.99. Yes, the extra terabyte will cost you an additional $200+, but remember that's a single drive, rather than just WD inserting another terabyte drive into a second bay. (As a point of reference, a Western Digital 2TB internal Caviar Green drive costs $299.)

The CyberPower Windows Home Server 100 comes in a nondescript mini-ITX case with 2GB of RAM and a single 500GB hard drive. It includes built-in high-definition audio processing and an S-Video port to connect to a video source or TV. No word on whether there are any USB ports to add external storage. On the CyberPower Web site, it appears you can change the storage amount (even downgrading to 320GB or upgrading to 1TB) and add a DVD burner.

The base price for the 500GB Windows Home Server 100 is $399, though you can move to 1TB for an additional $49. You can throw in a memory-card reader for another $10. That's far less than HP's Windows Home Server units, but they have a lot more panache and added functionality.

You'd have to be pretty hardcore about networking to drop a $2,500 tax refund completely on your home network, but you can do it if you really try. Here's how you can put together a great networking setup with a supersized budget.

Router

You obviously have to start with a good router, and with this budget, you don't have to go bargain hunting for the lowest priced 802.11n out there. Instead, you can splurge on something like the Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router, which can work over 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies at the same time. It's perfect if you have legacy 2.4GHz devices, while the 5GHz performance is impressive. You even get a USB port so you can attach an external hard drive and have instant network attached storage. You'll also want to grab a Linksys Wireless-N USB Network Adapter with Dual-Band for another computer on the network.

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Network Attached Storage

There seems to be a new NAS device released every day, including new Buffalo TeraStations. And with a load of money to burn, I can grab the new four-bay TeraStation III. It's pricey at $1,299.99 for 2TB, but you get RAID Level 0, 1, and 5 support, hot-swappable drives, support for Mac OS X’s Time Machine feature, a pair of USB ports with printer server capabilities, and DLNA media server capabilities. It also has power-saving features like a scheduler that can automatically shut down the device during off hours.

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Internet Radio Device

I've been a big fan of the Logitech Squeezebox Boom since I had a chance to check it out last fall. Considering its compact size, it delivers high-quality audio, whether from Internet radio stations, online music services like Pandora and Rhapsody, or music files from your networked PC. It's pricier than some new Internet radios that have come out since, but it offers more features and better audio, making it worth the extra cost.

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Streaming Media Player

While the Boom is great to place anywhere in the house, for bringing media files to our TV, I'm giving the nod to the Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD over Apple TV. That's because it support more file types, even DRM-protected iTunes songs, which gives you more flexibility than Apple's device offers. Considering the limited number of HD videos iTunes has available, the EVA8000's untethered file support means you have a much wider range of high-definition content to stream from your PC. It also comes with a pair of USB ports that let you attach iPods or external drives for file playing that's not reliant on your network.

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Wi-Fi Thermostat

Here's a bit of a curveball for my final product selection. Canadian company Ecobee has developed its Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, which can be controlled remotely via Web browser and is able to download weather reports so you can program your home's temperature accordingly. The 3.5-inch color touchscreen makes it easier to program than the minuscule screen and buttons most other new thermostats have. For a little less than $400, it can earn back its price in energy savings probably in a matter of months.

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More from ZDNet's Tax Refund Special

While the ix4-100 has advanced features like RAID Level 5 and 10 capabilities, virtual environment support, and the ability to capture real-time video from up to three surveillance cams, it also comes with consumer-oriented specs like UPnP AV Media Server and Bluetooth support. Four USB ports are available for additional storage from external drives and to attach a printer for sharing over the network, though no eSATA are included. For online backups, Iomega bundles Mozy Home, which gives you 2GB of online storage for free; that's not much, so you can get unlimited storage by upgrading to a $4.95 monthly plan.

Considering the QNAP TS-439 Pro Turbo probably will cost around $700 for just the bare device, the 2TB StorCenter Pro ix4-100 seems like a pretty good deal for $799.95, though the 4TB costs a whopping $500 more for an extra two 1TB drives that you could buy yourself for about $100 apiece.

If you're looking for a cheap NAS drive, this probably isn't the one for you. For one thing, the base unit doesn't come with any storage, though you can pack up to 6TB of data across four drives. You can add more storage by attaching an external drive to the TS-439's five USB ports (which also let you connect a printer for sharing across your network) or two eSATA ports. You also get a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports. Extensive RAID support is also standard; not only do you get Level 0 and 1 capabilities, but also Level 5 and 6 options for greater storage amounts while maintaining redundancy. While the TS-439 is clearly designed with office use in mind, it can function as a UPnP/DLNA media server or an iTunes server for consumers with hardcore storage needs.

There's no pricing info yet from QNAP on the TS-439, but its TS-409 predecessor costs a little less than $600. You'll probably pay a bit more for the new unit, though keep in mind that the price doesn't include hard drives, which will jack up the total cost even more.

Give Verizon credit for trying something different. As fewer people rely on residential landlines for phone service, and more of those remaining people switch to VoIP service from their cable TV providers, the whole concept of the home phone needs a fresh look. The Verizon Hub is a new communications system that combines the company's wireless and VoIP plans with cordless handsets and an Internet-enabled touch-screen unit.

To use the Hub in your home, you need to have a Verizon Wireless account, as well as subscribe to its Digital Voice plan, which costs $34.99 per month for unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada. You'll also need a broadband connection and a router; those who don't own a router already can buy one from Verizon for $69.99. As the above picture shows, you get a cordless handset that sits in the Hub base station with the touch screen. That hardware combo costs $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a two-year service agreement; additional handsets are available for $79.99 apiece.

The costs add up quickly, as you can see, so what advantages does the Hub offer consumers? The "command center" gives you access to an array of Internet services, including news, weather, and sports updates, traffic info, movies listings and ticket purchasing, and visual voicemail. You can also create a Contacts list that syncs between each of your handsets and the command center. It also has a couple of handy features if you subscribe to the Chaperone and VZ Navigator services through your wireless plan. The former can locate your cellphone-wielding children from the command center just by selecting the Locate Now button, while the latter lets you beam turn-by-turn GPS-based directions to a mobile phone after you look up an address on the center. The center can even be used as a digital photo frame.

When it comes to Internet access, however, the Hub seems to be something of a closed system. There's no Web browser or e-mail app, both of which seem like obvious features considering there's built-in 802.11b/g. You also don't get a built-in camera to use for video chatting, though you get two USB 2.0 ports. Verizon could roll out new services and features over time, but the price is quite high to sit and wait for them to arrive, especially in this economy. For consumers, the best hope may be that Verizon's concept spurs competitors to come up with similar offerings of their own that they price more reasonably—or maybe just wait until Verizon realizes there's little demand for the Hub at this price and starts offering it at a more affordable price point.

For some early impressions of the Hub, check out Engadget and Yahoo Tech. Then let us know what you think of the Hub in our Talkback section.

According to a report by The Associated Press, Comcast is promising data speeds of 1.5Mbps through the service. Subscribers just need to enter their login name and password in order to connect with their devices.

The Wi-Fi tests by the cable companies come as more people rely on 3G networks to surf the Web through their laptops and cell phones. In fact, they could keep more people from switching entirely to a cellular modem as their only form of Internet connectivity. To stem that tide, Comcast may need to roll out this Wi-Fi service across more of its markets quickly.

Buffalo is introducing three new routers, as well as a hat trick of network adapters. Two of the routers are based on the Draft N spec, with the $99.99 Wireless-N Nfiniti High Power Router & Access Point (WZR-HP-G300NH; pictured) at the higher end and the $79.99 Wireless-N Nfiniti Router & Access Point (WHR-G300N) priced for more value-oriented consumers. The biggest differences between the two are that the WZR-HP-G300NH comes with USB and Gigabit Ethernet ports, adjustable antennae, and a quality-of-service (QoS) mode that prioritizes multimedia content streaming over the network. For price-conscious consumers that don't want to make the step up to 802.11n, Buffalo is also offering a 802.11g router in the form of the $59.99 Wireless-G High Speed Router & Access Point (WHR-HP-G54). One thing Buffalo is not offering is a dual-band N router like D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear have. According to the Buffalo rep I spoke with, the company's thinking is that the high-end ($100+) router market is too small for it to worry about for the moment.

Of course, Buffalo is releasing USB-based network adapters to go along with the new routers, though it isn't offering a 802.11g one to go along with the WHR-HP-G54. Instead, it's offering the $79.99 Wireless-N High Power Compact USB 2.0 Adapter (WLI-UC-G300HP) and $69.99 Wireless-N Compact USB 2.0 Adapter (WLI-UC-G300N); the primary difference is the pricier unit comes with a flip-out antenna. If size matters, Buffalo is offering the teeny-tiny Wireless-N Ultra Compact USB 2.0 Adapter (WLI-UC-GN; pictured) for $59.99 It measures just 0.6x1.6x0.2 inches.

While Buffalo will need to play catch-up in the router space, it's already a market leader in network attached storage. It looks to build on that success with several new NAS devices, and it's even trying to reduce confusion over its business and consumer lines by labeling the former TeraStations and the latter LinkStations, and not mingling consumer TeraStations and pro-level LinkStations as has happened in the past. The new TeraStation Duo is the first TeraStation to support just two drives, and it comes in 1TB (the $319.99 TS-W1.0L/R1) and 2TB (the $399.99 TS-W2.0L/R1) flavors. There's also the TeraStation III (pictured), which can handle four drives, and comes in the $1,299.99 2TB TS-X2.0TL/R5 and the $2,299.99 4GB 4TB TS-X4.0TL/R5. Both new TeraStations support RAID Level 0 and 1 configurations, hot-swappable drives, and Mac OS X's Time Machine feature, sport a pair of USB ports with printer server capabilities, and can work as a DLNA media server. They also have power-saving features like a scheduler that can automatically shut down the device during off hours. With room for more drives, the TeraStation III also offers RAID Level 5 support.

On the consumer side, the new LinkStation Pro has a sleek look and competitive pricing: $209.99 for the 500GB LS-XH500L and $299.99 for the 1TB LS-XH1.0TL. While it has many of the features you see in competing NAS drives—a pair of USB ports, DLNA server support, Web access to your files— it stands out with an iPhone app that lets you access those files on your phone, including streaming media content. The one-year warranty's a little on the thin side, however. I hope to take a look at one when they become available soon, so stay tuned.

In its promotional spiel, the company suggests a couple of possible uses for the P2P capabilities, including syncing your data with a remote drive for increased security or automatically updating a relative's drive with new family photos when they're backed up to your Box 2 Box. Additional units using the Synapse technology Box 2 Box comes can join the P2P network as well, and Datto claims the connection can work regardless of firewalls or connection settings. Box 2 Box drives come with four USB ports for additional storage, and are powered by an Intel Atom 230 CPU running a Linux-based OS. It doesn't come with any backup software, however.

Of course, in order to make use of the Box 2 Box's P2P features, you'll need to purchase a pair or more of the drives, which isn't cheap. Datto is offering some pre-releases savings on its Web site, whether you purchase a single drive or a two-pack. Still, $349.99 for a single 250GB Box 2 Box (BXP-250) is far more than you can pay for most rivals' equivalently sized NAS drives; that price becomes $619.95 for a pair. However for $30 more, you can get a 500GB version (BXP-500), or $659.95 for a bundle of two drives. The $479.95 BXP-1000 comes with a terabyte drive and a second Gigabit Ethernet port, while a two-pack costs $849.95. Datto is banking on the fact that its P2P functionality is worth the price premium, though the two 500GB Box 2 Boxes still cost only slightly more than a single new HP MediaSmart Server.