Wow, I'll have to re-read this again, but I'm on a different continent to the UK at the moment.
The cable modem connects via USB into the computer, but as far as I recall it also has an ethernet connection on the back.
It seems the first port of call is a router.
In simple terms, I basically need something that can broadcast my internet connection or at least understand when something wants to use it (router?). For everything that I want to connect to it needs the capability to broadcast it's intent to my router, which will then allow access.
Am I missing any key steps?