confused,
Take a look at this
Sound and Vision online article on speaker setup.
It will help to clarify how to setup all your channels properly so they are calibrated and how to place a subwoofer. It should answer all your questions.
As for your speaker wire runs, various people use different methods for determining the gauge that is required for certain distances. Just offhand, for runs of around 30 feet, 12-14 gauge should suffice. I have two runs of 40+ feet and i'm using a 12ga wire, but i think if you figure out the annoying math on resistances, etc., 14 ga is also possible. I just choose to err on the side of caution and go with the heavier gauge (looking to the future a bit in case i change my room configuration and distances get any longer).
