Abstract: A video surveillance system which includes at least one field recording site and at least one remote viewing site linked by a communication channel of the internet. The field site locates a video surveillance recorder which archives a compressed digital video signal from a video source to a digital memory. Similarly, data associated with the video signal is archived to a digital memory. The archived video signal is stored in file segments associated with the times they are recorded. The system further provides a compressed real time video signal. The video surveillance system also includes a server interface to the internet whereby the field site may be controlled to provide the video and data information to a user at the remote site. User commands may be communicated from the remote site to the field site to transfer either the real time video signal, the archived video signal or the archived data signal. The selected signal is then displayed on a video monitor of the remote viewing site.