How to add a static banner

Hello I’m new here and to setting up blogs. I’ve done my install and preliminary set but have a couple of questions. I searched the threads and I am still having trouble.

One – how do I set up personal avatars in my blog? I’ve downloaded wp-user-av….zip but it doesn’t open or appear to load.

Next, how do I set up boxes on my blog homepage? I would like to run a static banner across the top of the blog but when I attempted a “header” installation it just posted over the left side of my homepage and I deleted it.

Thanks, Steve