Running a server? I don't know nuffin, me.

I don't know anything about setting up a server I'm just frustrated that many of the good servers in my area (Hong Kong) seem to have gone away recently and there are only crappy servers with all kinds of stupid mods like high ammo, instant re-spawn, engis who can build unlimited numbers of sentries etc. etc. I don't know where all the good servers have gone.

So, I want to set up a simple, vanilla server so I can play TF2 again but I know nothing about it. I'll be setting up a new network when I move house soon which will include a 2 TB NAS which will be always on (and online) and of course I have a broadband connection. Can I just run a TF2 server on the NAS or is it more complicated than that? Will I need to do lots of tedious admin things or can I just chuck it up vanilla and let it run?

Running a server off of a NAS is impossible because of limited control as well as the lack of processor power.

You need a 3.0GHz P4 at the least to run a single 24-man 66 tick server.
You will also need a fairly large upload speed.

You can set up a vanilla server without any problems.  For basic admin features as well as some basic modifications, you can easily install beetles mod.

What mooga said is right.

You need lots of horsepower plus a pretty large bandwidth connection to run a server.
Also, running a game server off of a consumer level ISP connection is a violation of most ISP's Terms of Service (TOS).

Thanks for the info. Seems more complicated than I thought so I guess I'll just hope that the good servers come back online when the scout update comes out.