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 specific host company for your domain name is the simplest way to point it to their system and all its sub-records are going to 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, so if you want to edit any one of these records, you will be able to do it by using their system. To put it differently, the NS records of a domain address show the DNS servers that are authoritative for it, so when you try to open a web address, the DNS servers are contacted to get the DNS records of the domain name you are attempting to reach. This way the website that you'll see is going to be retrieved from the correct location. The name servers usually have a prefix “ns” or “dns” and every single domain has at least 2 NS records. There's no practical difference between the two prefixes, so what kind a web hosting provider is going to use depends completely on their preference.