In short, name servers organise and route traffic across the internet. When you enter a website name in your browser, the browser starts to decode the website you are looking for and point you to the right web server. The name server holds the records for where the websites are located.
Name servers translate the domain name (website name) into an IP address. With the domain name translated into an IP address, the name servers can then route your request to the server with the website you’re looking for.
A name server would look like this: ns1.example.co.uk or ns2.example.co.uk
Additional technical information
In windows, you can view your current name server by using the command prompt and typing nslookup then press enter and then enter set q=NS and enter. The line after set q=NS will ask for your domain name, so you need to enter that, then you the name servers are shown with their corresponding IP addresses.
A custom name server allows you to run your own name server to respond to DNS requests for your domains. It is also a requirement for VPS and dedicated server customers who wish to have root access on their servers since with root access you can modify the DNS zones on the server, and having access to our public name server zones would be a risk to security.
A vanity name server is a name server that is branded to a website of your choice, instead of public name servers. This can make your website seem more professional, by masking the fact you’re using the web hosting’s own name servers. With vanity name servers you are just hiding or masking the hostname of the web hosts public name server, but the IP addresses and the physical servers handling your website’s DNS requests would still be our public name servers.
