The NS, or Name Server records of a domain, show which servers deal with the Domain Name System (DNS) records for it. Setting the name servers of a particular host company for your domain is the most effective way to forward it to their system and all its sub-records are going to be managed on their end. This includes A (the IP address of the server/website), MX (mail server), TXT (free text), SRV (services), CNAME (forwarding), etcetera, so if you need to edit some of these records, you are going to be able to do it through their system. In other words, the NS records of a domain address point out the DNS servers which are authoritative for it, so when you attempt to open a web address, the DNS servers are contacted to get the DNS records of the domain name you are trying to access. That way the web site you'll see will be retrieved from the right location. The name servers typically have a prefix “ns” or “dns” and each and every domain name has at least two NS records. There is no functional difference between the two prefixes, so what type a hosting provider is going to use depends completely on their preference.