To answer the first question - I never had any response prior to today, and I did eventually rename the server. ePO promptly quit working even though it was the same machine, same IP address - the only thing changed was the computer name. I changed the computer name back to the original and it started working again. There must be something in the database that has to change as well.
My understanding is that if I installed ePO fresh on a new server and gave the new server the same IP address as the old one (turn off the old one, of course), the clients would find the new server and all would be well. This goes right along with my theory that there is something in the database that gets confused when just renaming the server.
Thanx for your interest and good luck....dj
"It's never too late to have a happy childhood!"