Banner at home page

Hello, I have two questions:

1. I would like to insert a banner at home page, but when I insert a html code in the Theme Options or text, it doens't appears at home page.
2. I have a a plugin ti create and insert sidebars in the whole web pages but when i want to insert in the homepage I can't do it because the home page in the Dashboard in "pages" it doesn't exist.
   
   
   What can I do?

Thanks,

Ari