I am just ending a one year relationship with AOL's ADSL service.  My
son complains bitterly that his "ping" rate is very very slow and
attributes this to the packets travelling to US based servers (and
back) which makes him uncompetitive when playing on-line games.

We have two PC's at home, connected with an ethernet 10/100 network
running Microsoft's Home Networking.  The current AOL ADSL allows only
one PC to connect to the web, which is a bind.

If I am going to swap SP's can any one:

1) Recommend an alternate ADSL supplier which can "guarantee" a good
ping rate
2) Allow me to connect both PC's to the internet (and, what are the
ramifications of static versus dynamic IP addressing - which I confess
I don't understand - in relation to this dual PC issue (if there is
one).
3) What extra kit will I need to buy to make the above scenario work?

Thanks.

Hello paulch-ga,
Wow 1 year with AOL ADSL, you must be one of the very first AOL ADSL
subscribers in the UK.
A1). Almost any  ADSL ISP will offer lower pings than AOL, - as you
point out AOL route their traffic to the States and back with added
lag.
For your information BTOpenworld returns 21ms pings to bbc.co.uk,
however no ping times can be guaranteed due to the loading on the
network. Ping times fluctuate during busy periods e.g. evenings, ping
times will increase, as will packet loss. The speeds of downloads and
uploads also cannot be guaranteed due to the sharing 'contended'
nature of the ADSL technology. However some ISP's monitor and try to
maintain their network performance more regularly than others so pings
maybe slightly better on one network than another, though it is not
always in the ISP's control as most of the UK's ADSL infrastructure is
provided by BT.net and if a network router gets overloaded ping times
can suffer.
A2).  You can't technically connect two PC's 'directly' to the
internet. Either one PC is connected and shares the connection with
another, or a broadband router is connected to the internet and shares
it to both PC's.
Almost any ADSL connection can be shared with the correct set-up.
A static IP address means that when ever you connect to the internet
you will have the same IP number for the lifetime of the account. This
can be useful if you want to host your own web site on your home PC. A
dynamic IP gives you a different number each time, some view this as
safer from hackers as your IP address is different for each 'logon'
Read this Static vs Dynamic IP addresses article from the
Zytrax Services web site
http://www.zytrax.com/isp/faqs/static.htm
A3). To see what kit you need for networking, here is an excellent
resource at ADSLguide.org.uk
Home Networking FAQ
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/qanda.asp?faq=HomeNet
You could continue with your existing set-up if you find that
satisfactory (I assume you have a USB modem), some people have
stability problems with the USB device), or switch to a router.
ADSLguide have a fairly comprehensive guide to ADSL hardware with
set-up instructions for specific models.
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/qanda.asp?faq=DSLHardware
Additionally to help you chose a ISP you can compare user feedback
here
at ADSLguide 'Compare DSL service providers"
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isp_compare.asp
and here is a list of providers and price and plan details
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps.asp?action=packagelist
Also you can get first hand experience of what people think of their
ISP's here on the forum boards
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/
The ping performance will vary over time, for example BTOpenworld had
100-200ms ping times last Autumn but now are relatively good around
16-25ms for UK sites. Pipex were relatively good but recently due to a
large surge of users on their network, users were reporting some
performance penalties as the ISP struggled to cope with demand from
their successful marketing in June, free installation and free modem
at only £23.44 on monthly contract! If you keep to a monthly contract
at least you will not be tied down to an ISP, and in theory you can
change as things start to go sour.

Search strategy
"dynamic IP" "fixed IP"

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22dynamic+IP%22+%22fixed+IP%22&btnG=Google+Search

I hope that helps
regards lot-ga

Quick! VERY Quick! Good overview of the issues in my question.  I have
read the recommended site information and feel that I now have enough
info to make a decision.  Very Satisfied.  (Only reason I didn't give
top marks is that Nobody ever gets top marks!)