I think there is no option for setting the number of words that contain the excerpt. But you can hack the the_excerpt function at wp-includes/templates-function-post.php. Default setting is 120 I think.
If in question no.1 you want to put another design to the more part you can actually create a new style in css for id more-<unique entry id no.> Try looking at your page source code and trace that part.
Sometimes the username and db name are prefixed with your root username in cpanel like if my root username is premrara i get a database premrara_wordpress and a username premrara_prara
You should ask your host to be sure.
The latest stable release of WP is WP1.2-Mingus you can download that at Sourceforce [see Downloads link]. If you are in Windows, the .zip compression is most easy to extract.
I am allowed 500mb bandwidth and it fits perfectly in a one-month duration. Hosting is pretty cheap in pesos. Unlimited MYSQL. check it out at https://www.ploghost.com
I think that first once warning is about this:
If you’re going to use it, the weblogs.com cache file needs to be writable by the web server. CHMOD 666 the wp-content/link-update-cache.xml file.