Wanting to use my laptop connected directly to the (Modem) Ethernet wire, is my only option to buy an ethernet Switch and from there run it to my computer and then with the additional ports to my laptop, printer, scanner and all?
I don't mean is that my only option, question really is that's what is used when wanting to branch out to additional devices?
That’s what’s used. Your modem hopefully has what it takes to be in charge and hand out/manage local IP addresses for each connected device (that’s called DHCP). The simple Ethernet switches are “dumb” and just route traffic, they don’t make the network happen.
In the odd chance your modem doesn’t do DHCP you can probably assign each device a static address, might take some menu acrobatics on your printer/scanner.
