Wired Router vs. Switch to connect all equipment

Assuming your router doesn't have enough ports to connect all your devices, use a switch (not a hub).

All my lines terminate into a patch panel next to my FIOS ONT similar to your setup. I just installed a Netgear switch like this one and ran a line to the FIOS jack. You may want to consider a bigger (more ports) switch or just addon later if you need more ports.

Cable modem -> WAN port on your router.
Then connect the switch to a LAN port on the router. Keep it all gigabit to utilize the Cat6 cables. That's assuming your router can't handle all your devices. If it can, just use the router. Basically, a router will deal with your internet connection, and a switch will give you more ports.

Similar here all my runs terminate on patch panel, then have a 24port switch which connects to the FiOS router...... running all internal devices via the switch gives less issues with firewall for things like media streaming

Just your router will be fine if it has enough gigabit ports... Add a gigabit switch if you need more ports or if your router isn't Gb.

I have a Cisco/Linksys 2048 24 port Gigabit switch - non-POE. Works great!

Just remember the more switches/routers you have, the more problems you will have with the home run(video). video will be come choppy. keep it simple one large switch and a router for your internet connection. Just make sure all the home run devices are on the same switch/router.

A switch is just a fancy hub more or less (more to it than that, but that's all you need to know to understand the difference) that connects PC's or other devices together on the same network. A router is what connects you to the outside world (or, to another network) and routes traffic where it needs to go.

A router interconnects two or more computer networks. It also isolates networks and only passes traffic between the two networks only if the destination of the traffic is on the other network.

In the case of most home setups, the networks are the Internet and the 'home' network. The router does not send the information being exchanged between the computers inside your home to the Internet. And it determines if any of the packets on information that are on the Internet are being directed to one of the computers inside your home. If they are, the router allows them in and directs to the proper computer.

A switch has basically no intelligence. It merely sends any information that appears on anyone of its ports to another port. However, if the sending and receiving computers are both on the same switch, it will not generally uplink the data to the next level.

By the way, as you add more and more devices to a network, you may not want to use your router as a switch. Most of the consumer routers do have some bandwidth problems and using a switch will reduce the data flow through the router and prevent some pesky intermittent problems.

Be aware, that hubs, switches and routers all do much the same thing and there is a lot of gray areas in the actual hardware implementation. So some switches look something like routers and some hubs look like switches... Confusing isn't it?

Ditto. Use a switch to get better throughput, not a hub. A switch as the name implies, can send different packets to different ports unlike a hub which broadcasts everything on all ports which is less efficient. I don't know if anyone even makes hubs anymore, anyway.