Can't preview and updates won't show up

I am about at my wit’s end with a couple issues that may or may not be related:
1) I can’t preview posts or pages, or private posts or pages. I get either a 404 page not found or an error “you don’t have permission to view drafts”. Um, what other permission do I need–I’m the admin??? This has been going on for a couple weeks. WordPress is stored in a folder–billbayer.net/wordpress but the domain for the site is billbayer.net. I made the transition following wordpress directions for “giving wordpress its own directory” and have had tons of problems since, even though I’ve done the same thing on other sites before.
2) My changes won’t update right away. Say I add or edit a widget in the sidebar. The change won’t appear on the actual site until later–sometimes minutes, sometimes days. Same with editing plugin settings, post authors, etc. REALLY frustrating, and I have no idea why. This just started toward the end of last week.

Any help would be appreciated…I don’t know what to do!