Hub, Switch or Router?

I agree with the above. A hub will slow down you connection while a switch will not.

I agree with this post but the original poster should be able to get it done with 1 switch instead of two. He said his modem is in his office and he needs to connect to 3 devices in his office. Most routers have 4 LAN ports. He should be able to put his wireless router in his office and connect the 3 devices in that room directly to the router's LAN ports. He would then have 1 port left on the router to run a cable to the living room.

In the living room he would then use a switch to get ethernet to the 4 devices he has in that room. I have personally had good luck with this one.

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S50g/dp/B001QUA6R0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1436815069&sr=8-7&keywords=gigabit+switch

I linked a 5 port switch because it is $18 and he is only trying to hook 4 devices to it. With the 5th port being taken up by the run from the router there will be none left for future devices though. I personally recommend spending $10 more for the 8 port version in case you add any devices to your entertainment center in the future.

I have been using the 8 port version as the main backbone of my network and two of the 5 port versions in other rooms for a couple years now and they have all worked perfectly.

Like both people before me said, stay away from hubs. Switches do the same thing but more efficiently. Your entire network will run better with a switch.

Edit: Depending on what router you have, it might make sense to use two switches to wire all your devices instead of the Router's ethernet ports like Kanewolf said. I just read your post again and saw that you are planning to run a media server on this network.

If your router has gigabit ethernet ports there would be no problem with using the setup I described earlier in this post. If your router only has 10/100 ports you would be better off with everything connected to gigabit switches though. Streaming things like full quality blu-ray rips over a network can really clog your network up if 10/100 ports are in the mix.

If your router only has 10/100 ports than run a single wire to a switch in the office and a single wire from that switch to the switch in the living room. That way only the internet traffic will have to pass through the router. Your other devices will be able to communicate with each other directly through the switches.