A few years ago Ethernet was typically used at 10Mbps connection speeds. Since I believe that there is no such thing as too much bandwidth, I selected the physical wiring approach to a home network, with 100Mbps Ethernet. I was lucky in the installation phase, since the layout of my house made running cable fairly easy. My house has closets that allow easy access to the attic and basement, as well as to each other. In addition, I could find a path between bedrooms that ran along the heating pipes.
Plenum cable is also available there for about twice the cost.
I had no need to fish wires through the walls, so non-plenum would work fine. Again, all items were available at Home Depot. The plates come in a variety of configurations, holding up to eight jacks per single plate. If only two computers are to be connected, a hub can be avoided through the use of a crossover cable. Hubs are available from the usual PC hardware sources.