1. Nobody's going to be laughing at you (well, maybe I might, but that's 'cause I'm just 'orrible!)
2.
to Cable Forum
3. What you're wanting to do is actually (although you won't believe it now) incredibly easy. The only problem I can see is that you're probably going to end up with wires all over your house
If that's not a problem, read on.
What you need to get hold of is something called a router. This is a small(ish) box that connects to the Cable Modem. You then connect your computers to this box and it will share your internet connection across the different machines.
In time, when you get used to the idea, you will be able to do more 'networking' between the machines. For now though, this will help you get to where you want to be.
Like I say though, doing it this way will mean having cables running all over the place.
Exactly how you connect to the modem, and exactly what sort/model of router you need, will depend on what sort of modem it is, and that's where I bow out I'm afraid. I'm not a VM customer so I haven't got a clue what hardware you are using.
If you'd like to hold the line I'm sure somebody will be along shortly with some more advice