My b2evolution Version: 3.3.1 (supplied by webhost)

I am rebuilding my site using b2evolution and while it is mostly going just fine I am having problems with the built-in search-
just what does it SEARCH??

I can find no settings in the dashboard or blog preferences indicating what fields are searched, or figure it out manually. Almost all of my attempted searches come up with nothing.

I have rss/xml stuff disabled as I do not use them. I currently only have one blog with much content although there are 4 configured (single placeholder pages for the other 3.)

My hope is to have sitewide post text search working, but if this is not possible I may skip search. I didn't have it before.

Thanks for any help.