SQL Server Error 18483 - When Setting Up SQL Distribution I'm trying to synchronize a couple tables in one SQL Server 2000 database into another SQL Server 2005 database using replication.

When I am attempting to set up my SQL Server as a distributor, I'm getting the following error:


  SQL Server Enterprise Manager could not configure 'VIPER' as the Distributor for 'VIPER' .
  Error 18483: Could not connect to server 'VIPER' because 'distributor_admin' is not defined as a remote login at the server.


In doing research, I found several sources and articles that show that my machine name, and the actual name of the server are not the same.  When I check the sysservers view in master, I see that: 

0   1089    VMSSERV SQL Server  SQLOLEDB    VMSSERV         4/23/2008 9:50:41 AM    
1   1601    repl_distributor    SQL Server  SQLOLEDB    VIPER           10/12/2011 1:23:18 PM   
2   1184    CHARLIE SQL Server  SQLOLEDB    CHARLIE         2/18/2011 1:32:14 PM


The first line is the original database that was setup, and that I intend on using. You can see (kinda) that the original name is VMSSERV and the actual machine name is VIPER.

So, from the results of my extensive web search, I ran this in Query Analyzer:

USE MASTER
GO
SELECT @@SERVERNAME, SERVERPROPERTY('ServerName')


This returns:

VMSSERV VIPER 


Most of my web searches show that I should refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818334, which instructs to use:

-- Use the Master database
USE master
GO

-- Declare local variables
DECLARE @serverproperty_servername  varchar(100), 
    @servername             varchar(100)

-- Get the value returned by the SERVERPROPERTY system function
SELECT @serverproperty_servername = CONVERT(varchar(100), SERVERPROPERTY('ServerName'))

-- Get the value returned by @@SERVERNAME global variable
SELECT @servername = CONVERT(varchar(100), @@SERVERNAME)

-- Drop the server with incorrect name
EXEC sp_dropserver @server=@servername

-- Add the correct server as a local server
EXEC sp_addserver @server=@serverproperty_servername, @local='local'


And finally my actual question...

Would my correct format to fixing this be on the last line of the above sequence:

EXEC sp_addserver @server = @serverproperty_servername, @local = 'VIPER'


?

Once I perform this task, if there are further errors, I will reply back.  Hopefully this ONE item will fix my issue...
The SQL Server was probably renamed in the past.  Here's a better article from Microsoft on how to change the server names:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143799.aspx