A few things to consider when looking to rent a server...

*** Server Providers - I will list you here as a suggested server, for a small kickback to Clan-Less.com

Ok, to the meat of this. There's a few things one needs to think about before they purchase/rent a public or private server. I have gone through many a server and many a host on the past 5 years running our clan. So heres my best stab....

I will go into detailed discussion about these when it isn't 3am.
But here's some great addon Links.

Beetles Mod Admin Tool:
BeetlesMod - Home
I use Beetles on my servers, i swear by it.

Mani-Admin:
Mani Admin Plugin
Glitched, Hardly Supported and Cumbersome. Only suitable for Linux Based servers.
Windows servers has a hard time processing the code. I used it for a few years, but grew unsatisfied with both the program and support....

Ok fast DL is when you see the filename.bzip downloading whenever you connect to a server, typically its 75% faster to download then non compressed game files and the only compression type supported by source.

a quick synopsis on how its done...
1) admin zips the file and keeps an origonal copy for each that will be downloaded by a connecting client.
2) admin uploads all the unzipped files to the game server.
3) admin uploads all zipped files to a web server in proper...

WHAT!?!?!? CUSTOM SPRAYS?

Go here

http://sprayr.scumhunter.net/

** Note: keep sprays under 512x512 and they should convert into cs:s nicely.
Also - Make sure CS:S isn't running.

I will explain what people mean about "Rates".

Rates in CS:S is more about the speed inwhich you send info to a server, its all about timing.

For 100tick servers rates should be set at 100.
66tick = rates at 66.
33tick = rates at 33 (tho i hope you all never play in 33tick servers).

Then theres the rate specific setting, it should be at 25000 - 30000 for high speed internet, and 15000 - 18000 for dialup.

Heres how we accomplish setting...