GoDaddy manual updating of Drupal 7.18

Hi there,

I started using Drupal in December 2012 and love it. However, I see there is a security update to Drupal 7.18 and my site is on GoDaddy, running Drupal 7.17.

I tried using their automatic updater like 3 times and each time, I got installation errors and had to reverse the changes. The updater said I will have to manually update Drupal.

So, calling GoDaddy, they give me the standard "we don't support Drupal" (but will sell you a linux hosting plan that uses it) and "go to drupal.org/support and find out there." Great. Some tech support. She blathered on about the folders being changed and I had no idea WTF she was talking about. I told her that I'm using Drupal's interface and haven't really had to use any folders. She couldn't even tell me where I could find a command line prompt when I asked, given that I've seen some help documentation that assumes users have a linux/unix prompt available. "You don't have a command prompt in the FTP file manager. You'll have to do it through Drupal." Ugh...And then she asks if I want to go back to using their crappy website builder (which I just ditched in favour of hosting so I can get more pages (not just 5) and better pages, instead of complaints about how their template sites look.)

My question is two-fold:

1. I have recently installed modules and plug-ins. Could this be the reason why it's not updating?
2. If #1 isn't the problem, what are my options for applying this upgrade using GoDaddy's linux hosting, given that I don't see anything that is remotely helpful in my hosting account - no "backup", no "command prompt"?

Also, if you're a GoDaddy linux hosting user and have been able to apply the update (with your plug-ins and so on), can you please explain what you did? Should I perhaps uninstall the plug-ins? I've recently installed Advanced Help, Panels, Chaos Tools, GoogTube, Google Analytics, Views and Insert.

Thank you in advance for reading this.