Yes your right.

Here is a pic I found of the backside of my modem:

as you can see, I do have an ethernet port, as a matter of fact I used ethernet at first on my old comp. then took it out thinking USB was better

So, in your opinion, you seem knowledgable enough, and sometimes a search can lead to more searching, but perhaps you can give me your answer before I search more.
Do I run the (phone cable?) perhaps I still have my ethernet wire somewhare? Ok, do I run that phone type cord direct to my LAN port on the back of my comp, or do I need to buy an ethernet card?
Modem ethernet out port->phone type cord->LAN port

Just wondering as the LAN port is a phone jack and so is the ethernet jack. (so I put 2+2 together and came up with....5?)