Plugin Update Permissions vs phpMyAdmin Settings

In phpMyAdmin, under wp-users, do you have to use user_activation_key and user_status?
Is this associated with AUTH_KEY; SECURE_AUTH_KEY; LOGGED_IN_KEY; and NONCE_KEY ?

Those two columns are blank (user_status = 0 in all users) in the lines adjacent to each username.
All the other fields have data, aside from user_url associated with the user ‘admin’.
The admin line was established by the Server Host when the database was set up but the additional users we added since have user_url = http://

Unsure if any of these blank spaces are significant.
The Database, phpMyAdmin and the Blog all work fine.
So does the whole DirectAdmin.
This Blog has run fine, aside from never having auto-update, since Jan 2008 in WordPress. Before that we ran an identical Blog in Joomla, with a different Server and Host (now defunct). We have each become familiar with WP Dashboard and Posting methods etc. Also, aside from not having an answer, our Host is in every other way quite responsive to our questions.

But somewhere in the “user permissions” we are generating that sickmaking message “you do not have sufficient permission to update plugins” (sic)

Ultimately it has to be something simple. We cannot believe a virtual “bolt-on” application like WordPress can malfunction like this. WordPress works fine but there is a logic disconnect in the Updates handshake.

Now that WP 3.0 has rolled Updates compulsorily into Auto-Updates, we no longer have any indication WHICH plugins have updates available so we are stuck at 2.9.2 forever. (WP 3.0 works fine but no auto-update and no idea which plugins!!)

Possibly a significant element of our problem is that both WP and our Host feel they can safely wash their hands because, so far as they are concerned, Their bit works!

Somebody out there must have overcome this exact problem, and we suspect that means very many! They don’t need the Forum now though, huh?