Bukkit Server Start-up 101

The main intent of this thread is for people that want to start there own server, but don't know where to start, by getting the info straight from the people that know what they are doing.
Also please leave arguments out of this thread, and no questions about offline-mode servers, offline-mode is not supported. Also please don't criticize about the amount of questions.

So I will kick this off .

Security:
I have been looking online trying to find a list of plugins that would be good for starting a server.
By this I mean what plugins are necessary for a secure server, I know no offline-mode.

Ranks
What is the best rank plugin?

Chat:
How to display the rank in chat, and how to disable the "Player joined the game"?

Internet:
What about internet bandwidth, what is recommended?

Overall what are the best plugins, and please add anything that you think is necessary.

Thank you for taking the time to read and/or answer this.

 

Security: Are you looking for something like xAuth that verifies usernames, or something like NoCheatPlus that tries to block nodus and other cheating clients? In either case, i would recomend both.

 

anti-cheat plugin in combination with a block logging plugin covers security quite well for me.

i use essentialschat and GroupManager for rank/chat, although there are many combinations out there.

 

http://canihostaminecraftserver.com/

 

Useless link.