Starting a house network.

I’m moving into private accomidation in september and i have been asked to set up a network in the building. I have been told that there are two ways of doing thins, having a cable or ADSL line connected to a fire wall and then to a router or havingthe connection go through a fire wall then into a PC running windows tha can do the IP address routing nesessary then into a ethernet hub. What i want to know is, which is the more workable solution?