Upgrade/Plugin install/Photo upload failure

I’m having a few problems with my blog, not sure if they’re related somehow or all separate issues.

– The last few times I’ve updated to the new wordpress versions, the install has failed. It starts out, looks like it’s gonna work, but fails and then I have to download the update and upload the files manually.

– Sometimes when I try to install a plugin, the same thing will happen. Starts out and then fails.

– Every time I upload a picture, it will upload and then give me this error: Warning: file_exists() [function.file-exists]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/tmp/phpFPPbpn) is not within the allowed path(s): (/home/gleeful:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php:/tmp) in /home/gleeful/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 2402
1145
The pictures do upload but it displays the error rather than giving me th code.

The picture upload problem just started when I installed the last version of wordpress. But the other issues go back a few versions. How would I fix these things? I want to upgrade to the newest version of wordpress but I’m afraid that it will fail again.