[net.micro.pc] cheap lan for pcs

lsmith@ut-ngp.UUCP (lsmith) (01/23/85)

My wife's law partner, the one who didn't want to spend the money for
a word processor for the office, is now convinced he has to have one
for himself on his desk. I'm looking for a cheap way to network the
things. I could do something cheap by hooking two serial ports
together and transferring files with Kermit. This has the disadvantage
that the one with the printer and the hard disk has to have Kermit
running to do any transfers. If they end up with three machines,
they'd have to switch switches or something. 
What I have in mind is a file server like an extension of Kermit that
runs in the background like Sidekick and watches the extra serial
line. Almost everybody has an extra serial port laying around and if
you don't need mega-baud, such a system would be really usefull. Does
such a thing exist? If not, why not? I don't program on the PC, but
such a thing doesn't seem that difficult. Or is it?
Thanks in advance.