How to change the "device name" of a WorkCentre 7970 without breaking printing?

[Bryan]

We have several WorkCentre 7970 copiers/printers/scanners that were originally given unfortunate "device names" when they were set up.  (I'm talking about the device name that appears under Properties->Description in the machine's administrative web interface.)  I'd like to change the names of the devices (without changing anything else), but I find that

changing a device's name causes me to no longer be able to print to it.   If I change the name back to its original value, printing works again.  (These tests were done on a Mac, if that makes a difference.)

I'm guessing that I could change the name, then re-install the printers on the Mac, but we've already deployed these devices and I'd hate to have to re-install printers on a whole department full of computers.  Is there any way to change the device name without breaking printing?

Thanks for any advice.

[Joe053204-xrx · Accepted solution]

You can't, the device name is the host name and IPP (What the Macs use to print) uses host names to print.