As part of Dr. Z’s travels across the country, this question has come up in almost every city he goes to.

The answer is simple–most hotels and motels have firewalls as part of their router configuration which makes it difficult to process most videophone calls. There may be a way around it–ZVRS’ Z Connect may work in cases where there is no browser access required; but for the most part, it is not recommended.

In the event of an emergency in your hotel and motel room, you should not use your videophone to dial 911–use the hotel’s regular phone in the room–dial “911” and leave the phone off the hook–it should be suffiecient to get assistance from the first responder (police, fire, ambulance.) After dialing 911, and LEAVING your phone off the hook, go to the front desk to be sure they are aware of the emergency.

No one likes to talk about 911 situations–but one day, it may happen to you, so it is always good to be proactive.