Zomgshanked

I want to find a server not requiring you to get teamspeak to play on it. A server that ranges from 15-35 players at a time and running into hackers is rare. Not sure how to find them really, I just am tired of getting teleported and killed all the time. Help? :) Also, would have approximately 3-5 people joining with me. Chernarus please, already have a Namalsk one and the other maps we dislike.

I play on a Namalsk server but my friends and I make up 50% of the population at the servers peak times so I decided to find a secondary server to play due to the lack of players currently on this one. I want a Cherno server but honestly I am not really that good at this game nor are the people I play with so what I was wondering was how many players should I look for to be put up against? It's 4 of us in total including myself. We want to be able to run into people but not be on a server where its a fight over every single loot spawn, only the ones that really matter. Opinions or suggestions on a server would be awesome. Thanks.

Alright so I joined a little bit ago, probably about a week ago and I am already extremely bored. I love the concept of the game and the way its brought out but it feels like the only thing you can do is run a really far distance for possibly a better gun in case you encounter another player which normally ends in your death if you're not experienced in the game. Once you die, after your couple hour run to an airfield, you lose everything. I like this concept but, within an hour of playing this game there is no real stealthing around zombies in cities. I can be crawling with a friend and the zombies nearby don't see us, the ones a mile away tend to. Once we see one zombie running at us, we just run through the town at full sprint getting the food and drinks which isn't hard to come across. I mean, I don't want to seem like I am complaining but the PvE aspect of the mod is pretty bad so it kinda just feels like a hindrance as you run town to town that can give away your position. I tend to play on low population servers so running into people is rare. I tried playing on a higher population server and instantly was brought to hackers and thrown into an arena losing everything. TL;DR What do you do to have fun, and what amount of players do you look for on a given server to have a good experience?

Thanks for all the responses, I wasn't expecting nearly this much traffic in this thread. All of your responses are great, I think I am going to look into private hives and try out Namalsk because yeah... I don't have a big clan to roll with and nor do I have the aim needed to be wanted in one yet so Chernaurus just seems too big for me with too high of a risk/reward setting in place. Seriously though, gave me some more hope in this mod even if it is just in Alpha so I shouldn't expect much out of it.

How do you join a private hive?