Paul - without actually answering your question, let me recommend www.dyndns.org. For $30 (ONCE, not per year) they'll do DNS for a dynamic IP. I do this with a server connected via ISDN line, with updates by ddclient. It works great. (Or anyway, it works as well as using an ISDN line could be expected to work. The site is down a few minutes per week as my router redials and DNS propagates.)
Actually, you can do the same thing for FREE (since you're just learning) with an address like hostname.xxxxx.dom (where xxxxx.dom is one of several choices). I tried a different dynamic DNS service before dyndns.org (dynu.com) but wasn't happy with them. dnsdns.org is great, and the price is right.
AOLserver doesn't really need to know what its IP address, and in your scenario, you'd need to restart AOLserver (I think) every time your IP changed. I think it'll be much easier telling AOLserver ONE name and sticking with it.
Hope that helps!
p.s. If you'd like to see sites running on a dynamic IP - www.labarchive.net, www.egyptbay.com, and www.waningproductivity.com are all sharing one dynamic IP.
