router?

hi everybody i recently bought a pc of my own and have been having a good time with it until i connected to the internet. i downloaded utorrent but i am not sure wat the hell a router is:cry. i have a wireless usb thingy that picks up broadband in my area but everythuing just seems so slow and my friends keep telling me there's probably a prolem with your router.
i'm not really computer literate yet so if i've missed out any important stuff plz let me know.

 

the router is what connects your private network to the internet or public network.

 

Go to http://www.portforward.com/ it will explain what to do you need the name of your router or modem that gets you on the internet ,click on your router name then it take you to another page that has names on i.e. utorrent and how to open the port in your router firewall this will help if you are d/loading anything
Hope this Helps