Here's some more info that may help:

My host is powweb, and they have an instant installer feature. Have they been given the newest version so I can just upgrade through them?

I'd hate to lose all my product and customer data, but I'm at a dead end.

I have mysql access there, if I do a fresh install of their latest versions, which data would I need to import to regain my products and customer data. All the other customization I can do by myself.