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Hubs are great and all, but they provide absolutely no protection from sources attempting to access your computer from across the internet. You can try a hub, but if you're willing to make a purchase, get another router.
If it doesn't work, then you can take it back in favor of a hub at the same store.
In fact, you might need neither. Since your cable modem works over USB, you could connect the two computers via a cross-over cable (available in lengths like those that you were describing). Then you could connect both network cards of the two PCs directly with the cross-over cable and enable internet connection sharing on the computer with the cable modem. Then you could eliminate the router/hub entirely...
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