Troubles Getting vB content on non-vB pages

[blizmop]

Hi there. My programmer and I are trying to pull content from the vBoard and post it to non vB pages within the same site but we are obviously missing some things. Please help if you can.

1. Has anyone succesfully linked to a vB attached image, stored outside the database, and managed to get it displaying cross browser properly on pages not within vBulletin? If so, how did they do it?

2. Attached images stored outside the DB are missing their header information (as .attach)... How does vB reconstruct them when loading them onto pages? I can call them up but they are broken.

3. How do I check whether the user viewing our site is logged into the vBoard attached to the site? I presume there must be a session variable set when the user logs in, what is it? I want to use the logged in status of the local user as a toggle for visibility of items on pages not within the vBulletin forum.

The Goal:
I am trying to get the first post, and first attached image to that first post, to show up on a non-vB page.
The PEAR BB code tool is not parsing the smilies at the moment, but the text effects are working.
If the user is a logged in member (usergroup id:9) then they would be able to see things like pricing etc, but if not logged, or not id:9, then the user does not see those things.

Thank you in advance for any advice or help you may have.
Lance

OMG, I am so suprised that no one has any input on this. If no one here knows the answers, does anyone know where I should be looking?

Please help, i am in a huge bind right now.
Thanks again.