Half-Life dedicated servers are nice to use when you want to game with your friends without having lag on the machine that hosts it. Here are some tips:
1. Run the latest, stable, HLDS (4.1.0.8, I believe). Win32 and Linux binaries would work, but use what you know better (if you aren't familiar with Linux, skip the linux version).
2. Don't give out rcon to everyone! Rcon abuse is quite annoying and that's why you shouldn't give it out.
3. Install Adminmod. Adminmod allows all the nice/fun/neato features of Cstrike that a lot of servers use. Also, Adminmod allows you to create users, with specific security levels, to perform actions such as kick/map change, etc. When you install, use the WONID's instead of usernames as the accounts -- WONIDs are more difficult to hack
4. Make sure to read the documentation to know what you should have in the server.cfg and what you should not. If you don't read it much, just install the basics and move on. Installing 20x plugins becomes a headache to troubleshoot when your server isn't stable.
5. If you aren't going to be around when your server crashes, install serverdoc and be done with it. Serverdoc will restart your HLDS when it crashes.
As far as the machine and network connection, follow this:
1. Have a decent speed machine (500Mhz+), with plenty of RAM, that's preferably running NT4/Win2k/XP (server or workstation won't matter). Try to avoid using Win9x/ME as the hosting OS. Also, don't worry about the video card on that machine -- it won't matter since HLDS is a console app.
2. Upload speed is quite important. Happy CS users like 4-6k/sec, gauge that against your upload and you'll get a rough idea of how many people you can serve.
3. Have a way to get to the machine, in case you want to change settings like the server.cfg. PCAnywhere or VNC are decent apps which will give you access to the desktop, etc.
Last, but not least, if you find a way to get bots working with adminmod, let me know. Podbot (ver 2.5) and adminmod, don't get along very well at all with me (server just crashes, will never stay around long enough even for a client to connect).
Any other questions?
vash