Ok so now they child at the local geek store told me all I needed was a switch. So I got a 5 port home theatre and gaming switch. Did he steer me wrong?

As far as I know a switch will be better than a router. I believe they are 'smarter' than a router.

EDIT: I may be wrong, and have these switched around. I should know better than to comment on things that are above my level. :-)

Truthfully, I don't know.

It depends on the details of your existing modem. If you want more than one device behind your Internet connection, you need a router. My DSL modem is also a router - it has that functionality built into it. A few years ago I had Internet through cable and the modem they sent me was only a modem and a switch by itself would not allow me to connect multiple devices. I guess there's also a third option that maybe your circuit works differently than what I had and will distribute a public IP address to each device you connect to the modem via the switch.

No big deal. Just try it out. If it doesn't work, you can take it back and get a router (which will have several switch ports built into it).

If it doesn't work, try connecting devices one at a time and test whether each device works when it is the only one connected. If each one works on its own, but they won't work together at the same time, that's a good indication that you need a router. When moving on to test a different device, try just rebooting everything if it doesn't work right away.

OK I'll give it a shot.

A router has the ability to bridge two networks, i.e. the internet and your home network. A switch has limited intelligence to act as a traffic cop. It makes sure that information goes down the right pipe. The difference between the two is that a router can differentiate different types of traffic a switch cannot.

You should be able to connect your Blu-ray player to your home router if your blu-ray player is Ethernet enabled. If it is, then you can run a wire from the player to your router. Try it, see if it works.

If that works, and if your router and your player are wifi enabled, that means that they can transmit Ethernet wirelessly, then you should be able to do this as well. If your router is wifi enabled, and your player is not, then you will need to purchase something to translate the media from a wire to a wireless signal.

The way that many of these systems are set-up, you may need a wireless router on the player side of the equation if your player is not wireless enabled.

Ok soooo FYI the switch thing did not work. (I hate box store with stupid sales people) It would only let me use one thing at a time. stupid. Went back, exchanged it for a router for 10.00 more and
I'm STREAMIN' BABY! Thanks for all your help guys!

Sweet! Now you're a networking pro!