You are looking for a class of functions called RPCs (Remote Procedure Calls). You call a function on one machine and it is executed on another machine. There are different implementations. I've been wowed by SOAP, CORBA:: is well known, and there are other ones likes like XML-RPC and Suns RPC to investigate as well.

All these code libraries make RPCs easier than the alternative, which is to write your own TCP/IP server daemon and client.

____________________
Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.