My dad's giving me his laptop, which i hope to have sooner than later

. I know nothing about setting up routers. I want to work with it away from the desk. So, I'm guessing that one needs a router for this. Would I be better off having my isp set it up for me? Like I said, I know nothing about this, so whatever your "easy" is, it probably won't be for me,lol.
I like to plan ahead for stuff like this, cause I hate surprises