The NS, or Name Server records of a domain, point out which servers deal with the Domain Name System (DNS) records for it. Setting the name servers of a given hosting provider for your domain name is the most effective way to direct it to their system and all its sub-records are going to be taken care of on their end. This includes A (the IP address of the server/website), MX (mail server), TXT (free text), SRV (services), CNAME (forwarding), etc, so, in case you need to modify any one of these records, you'll be able to do it by using their system. To put it differently, the NS records of a domain address 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 obtain the DNS records of the Internet domain you are trying to reach. This way the site that you will see will be retrieved from the correct location. The name servers usually have a prefix “ns” or “dns” and each and every domain name has at least 2 NS records. There is no functional difference between the two prefixes, so which one a website hosting provider is going to use depends solely on their preference.