Method and apparatus for interfacing a peripheral to a local area network with an interactive network board connected to the peripheral via a bi-directional peripheral interface and connectable to the local area network via a local area network interface. The interactive network board executes an access management program such as a socket server to monitor the local area network for communications from a network client directed to a proprietary socket. In response to communications detected by the access management program, the access management program establishes direct communication between the network client and itself and executes commands requested by the network client, such as commands to obtain or to alter the status of the network peripheral, or commands to obtain or to alter the status of the interactive network board itself. The interactive network board may also execute a peripheral server program such as a print server in a multitasking environment with the access management program.