Question about Cyrillic from a newbie

[chemical-alice.livejournal.com]

Hello! I have recently began the study of Russian. I bought two books and I am teaching myself, so it is really slow going and I found I have already run into a problem. It is a very basic question, so I am hoping someone will be able to help me.

My problem is this: the two books I have disagree on the pronunciation of 'е.' One book says it is pronounced like 'e' as in 'tempo.' The other book says it is pronounced like 'ye' as in 'yet.' And I have seen it used both ways as well. нет uses the 'ye' sound, but Павлюченко uses the 'e' sound (or is it pronounced with the 'ye' sound?). And when they are transliterated into English they differ with the 'e' and 'ye' spelling as well.

So which is right? Or is this a situation in which they can both be right? I am worried to study further until I figure this out because I worry it could ruin all the pronunciation and spelling I try to learn if I am saying/spelling it wrong.

Also, is there a program out there to download so I can type in Cyrillic using my normal English keyboard? I always have to search and then cut and paste a word if I want it to show up in Cyrillic.

Sorry for how basic my questions are. Thanks for any help I can get!