The NS, or Name Server records of a domain name, indicate which servers deal with the Domain Name System (DNS) records for it. Setting the name servers of a specific host company for your domain name is the simplest way to point it to their system and all its sub-records will be handled on their end. This includes A (the IP address of the server/website), MX (mail server), TXT (free text), SRV (services), CNAME (forwarding), etc, if you want to modify any of these records, you'll be able to do it through their system. Put simply, the NS records of a domain name point out the DNS servers that 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 Internet domain you are trying to access. That way the web site that you will see will be retrieved from the correct location. The name servers usually have a prefix “ns” or “dns” and each domain name has at least 2 NS records. There is absolutely no practical difference between the two prefixes, so which one a host company will use depends solely on their preference.