This sounds similar to an NFS server.

Good idea? Depends on how it becomes a component in your general system. If it's a centralized place for doing stuff vs doing it over and over again, it could be good.

Reinventing the wheel? As someone else posted, it sounds like a webservice. To me, it sounds like a souped up NFS service. *** look up the issues on NFS before continuing! there are locking and timing issues to be concerned about! ***

TCP. I don't *think* there are unix sockets on windows. :)