I'm thinking about getting a dedicated server. I was wondering how most dedicated hosting companies handle Name Servers. Do they provide name servers are are you expected to run your own name servers on your box?

That all depends,

Most hosts should expect you to run your own DNS server.

As sometimes I can be much more easier to run your own DNS server, as you can do the administration for it, having you host do it, isnt the best of ideas.

But dosen't it cause problems having the primary and secondary name server on the same box?

It dosen't cause problems, as long as you have 2 different ips, one for each name server.

but it deceives the object of primary and secondary name servers.

The best solution for Primary and Secondary name servers, is to have servers in different noc's.

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.

Yes, I know the primary and secondary name server should be on different boxes in different locations.

OTOH, (for the short term) I'm only going to have one box and if it's down it really just does not matter :-)

<<MOD NOTE: I'm sure they check email without having to be told to do so>>

I know we offer secondary DNS free to dedicated customers up to a reasonable amount of domains. It's pretty easy to do. I don't think most hosts would mind doing it for you if you asked. But it makes sense to do your own primary DNS.

It's true, what was just stated before: If you are running DNS on a box, the same box where the sites are hosted, it serves no point to have your secondary DNS on another machine because if that "one" box goes down (either a local failure or external network problem), those sites will be unavailable.. even if you have secondary DNS off premises pointing the traffic to the dead box. My recommendation is just to use 2 IP's on the same box for your Primary & Secondary DNS.