Laptop rentals?

[Guest luvthai]

Wondering if anyone rents laptops for a month? I don't travel with a laptop because of the customs hassel on re-entering the states. They treat one like a criminal and can cause you to delay on entry almost missing a connecting flight.

I like to use GR but don't like hanging about an internet cafe making it hard to hook-up.

[Gaybutton]

I've never seen any laptops offered for rent in Thailand. Some hotels might offer laptop rental for their guests, but I have no idea which hotels, if any, offer such service.

 

Some hotels have lobby computers for their guests.

 

If that doesn't work for you, one possible alternative might be finding an inexpensive computer in a pawn shop, buying it, using it for the month, and selling it back when you're ready to leave. You'll lose money, but other than the above suggestions or bringing your own or using the internet shops, I can't think of what else you can do.

 

It would seem to me that the best thing for you to do, if you own a laptop, would be to back up everything important onto a portable hard drive or something before your trip, coming to Thailand, doing whatever you're going to do while you're here, and then formatting the hard drive or deleting just about everything before you return home. You still might be searched, but that way there would be nothing for customs to find.

[Bob]

Wondering if anyone rents laptops for a month? I don't travel with a laptop because of the customs hassel on re-entering the states. They treat one like a criminal and can cause you to delay on entry almost missing a connecting flight.

 

Never heard of laptop rentals in Thailand.

 

I always carry my laptop (for at least the last 6-7 years or so since I've owned one) and have entered US customs at either LAX or DET. While I know (from reports such as yours) that there must be some people hassled, I've never been asked anything about my quite visible laptop nor have I ever seen anybody else undergo any review about it. On the other hand, there's nothing of concern on my laptop either. Must be luck of the draw.

[Guest luvthai]

Actually buying a laptop at a pawn shop may not be a bad idea providing I find one that actually works. On returning home I could just give it to whoever my favorite guy was on the trip.

[Guest badcdn]

Seriously, Gaybutton raises a very serious security issue when buying and selling anything with a hard drive on it. The drive has to be wiped, not just deleted. (formatted, wiped, sanitized). If you don't, any file, potentially personal documents, or pictures, can be retrieved by data retrieval software, which is free and easy to use.

 

Also if you do buy a used laptop, make sure you do a format and reinstall Windows. You never know what kind of gifts might have been left on the drive. Key loggers, Trojans and viruses that could all steal sensitive info.

 

I accidental deleted all the pictures from one trip from a hard drive and was naturally pissed at myself. But after snooping around on the net for about 30 minutes, I found a free program, downloaded, installed and ran it. I was absolutely shocked at what it brought back from the dead; files I deleted over a year ago; files with any extension now living again and btw, I was able to retreive all the pictures, plus others from years ago.

All Customs and immigration, that pawn shop or anyone has to do is remove the hard drive, hook it up to their system, run the software and they can retrieve anything sitting on your hard drive from documents to pictures; any porn, movies or grandma's recipe for apple pie.

 

Personally, before my next trip, I will be buying an inexpensive net book for around $300. While I'm away, it will suit all my need; i.e. email, surfing, watching movies. Everything personal or sensitive in nature stays safely at home.

 

Net books are small enough and light enough to pack without adding a lot of bulk.

They are a little slower than full size laptops but for my needs, I don't need the processor power.

 

It's back to school time in North America so there are bound to be deals. Costco has a few models in the $300-$400 range. They come with a 90 day, no questions asked return policy as well as a 2 year warranty.

[Guest]

Just get a linux based Netbook.

Then either keep it "clean" or if you expect to get stopped, find some disk wiping software that over writes the data a few times. If you are really paranoid, just take the hard drive out and burn it.

[Bob]

I was absolutely shocked at what it brought back from the dead; files I deleted over a year ago; files with any extension now living again and btw, I was able to retreive all the pictures, plus others from years ago.

All Customs and immigration, that pawn shop or anyone has to do is remove the hard drive, hook it up to their system, run the software and they can retrieve anything sitting on your hard drive from documents to pictures; any porn, movies or grandma's recipe for apple pie.

 

 

For those that might not know, there are free programs that will also retrieve "deleted" photos on a digital camera media. I screwed up a compact flash card once, found a free program on the net to retrieve them, and recovered 95% of the ones deleted. I'd imagine the feds have a much better program.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Do you remember what the software was?

[Gaybutton]

The drive has to be wiped, not just deleted. (formatted, wiped, sanitized). If you don't, any file, potentially personal documents, or pictures, can be retrieved by data retrieval software, which is free and easy to use.

That's a very good point and I'll bet Customs has software and retrieval methods far more sophisticated than is available to the public.

 

I think, if you are carrying your own computer, the best way to protect yourself is to assume that anything that ever has been on your hard drive can be retrieved no matter what you do. The safest solution I can think of would be to buy an inexpensive external hard drive or a memory stick and leave the damned thing in the trash before returning home. If you have photos or whatever, you can always Email them to yourself before traveling.

[Guest]

You just need some software that overwrites the storage space with data a few times. All it can store is 1s & 0s. I don't see how it can remember if a particular byte was a 1 or 0 after that space has been overwritten a few times.

 

Personally, if I just take a few erotic photos of adults, complete with photos of their ID, I'm prepared to bring that into the UK & defend my right to do so.

[Bob]

Do you remember what the software was?

 

Sorry, lvdkeyes, I don't. I saved it somewhere on this computer but I simply can't find it and I've used a newer camera with SD cards for the last few years (meaning I've had no reason to even look for it for quite a while). I may have gotten it from tucows.com or download.com (although maybe I just found it doing a general search). Anyway, it was free and worked like a charm.

 

My guess is I have it on a backup cd somewhere here and, if you want it, just PM me and I'll search some more. Oh....it's probably a program that works with XP (I've had Vista the last 2-3 years and I'm sure it was before that).

 

[in the interim, do a google search of "digital photo recovery shareware" or "digital photo recovery free" and you'll see a lot of entries.]

[Guest]

CNET is a good source of free software. Just hit the "free" filter & pick something with good editor & user ratings.

[Guest badcdn]

I didn't mean to hijack the thread and I hope no one minds entertaining the security issue or topic a bit bit more.

 

I use a U3 drive, which I think has gone the way of the dinosaurs. It's a thumb drive that is able to run a limited number of simple programs from right off the portable drive. I use it to run Firefox whenever I'm at a computer I'm unfamiliar with, i.e. an internet cafe. Apparently the data is read and written to and from the thumb drive only, nothing gets saved to the computers hard drive or left behind. Still, prudence pays off, I don't carry highly sensitive information on it, just what I need when I travel.

 

 

Do you remember what the software was?

 

I downloaded several free data retrieval programs and tried them all. The one I settled on was called 'photorec'. There are a few versions available for download, and it was one particular version that runs from DOS, (not in a DOS shell in Win), that seemed to find everything. The DOS version was a little harder to use, but it also comes in Linux and one that can be run in WinXP.

 

PhotoRec - CGSecurity

 

 

There is also a freeware program called Truecrypt. It's a data encryption program where you create a folder, place/save/move your sensitive files into and the program will encrypt all the data. It's password protected and to the unscrupulous individual trying access your private files, the encrypted folder apparently appears as just random data on the drive. I've been testing it for a few months, but really have nothing to hide, so it's testing has been a challenge.

 

 

Personally, if I just take a few erotic photos of adults, complete with photos of their ID, I'm prepared to bring that into the UK & defend my right to do so.

 

I know I have my rights under the law, but after 20 hours in transit, I just want to go home so I try to keep it simple for Customs, although a single male travelling arriving from Thailand is alone deemed suspicious and seems to warrant a 'one one one' interview and search almost every time.

 

Along the lines of keeping it simple, in the event I loose my laptop, I keep all my pictures stored an a 4 G micro SD card. It's simple enough to conceal from that unscrupulous individual going through the hotel safe and if Customs wants to look at it, they're more than welcome to relive my holiday memory's with me, blow by blow, so to speak.

[Gaybutton]

if Customs wants to look at it

That's the part that bothers me. Is there really anybody left who isn't aware that Customs is very likely to inspect a laptop computer, especially if a single male coming from Thailand is carrying it? Is there really anybody left who is actually stupid enough to have illegal photos on his laptop anymore? I would have thought by now people would have more sense. Customs has the right to inspect anything coming in from a foreign country . . . anything.

 

Many think it's unfair for Customs to single out males coming in from Thailand. Fairness has nothing to do with Customs law and profiling is a major part of how Customs operates. Fair or not, that's the way it is.

 

I used to bring plants back from Thailand. I had a valid plant import permit and and valid paperwork from Thailand agricultural inspection. I knew what I was doing and how to bring plants back legally and alive.

 

One time I had an entire suitcase loaded with plants and the Customs officer waved me right on through even though on the Customs card I had checked off that I was bringing plants. I pointed that out to the Customs inspector and told him I need to go through the agricultural inspection line. My property was designated as a certified plant quarantine area and I would have had a rough time trying to explain to the inspector what I was doing with a lot of plants of foreign origin without having Customs certification.

 

The point is, since I had checked off that I was bringing in plants, I asked the Customs officer how come he was going to wave me through if I hadn't verbally volunteered I was carrying plants despite the fact I had checked off the correct box on the Customs declaration card. His answer - "You don't fit the profile." I only wish I was smuggling jewelery!

[Guest]

What's illegal about photos of adults?

 

I quote the following from Gaydarnation:

"To avoid the risk of confiscation, only import porn with content no more explicit than R18 videos and DVD

[Gaybutton]

how can they identify who has come from Thailand anyway?

The entry and exit stamps in your passport might give them a clue . . .

[Guest buckeroo2]

What's illegal about photos of adults?

 

I quote the following from Gaydarnation:

"To avoid the risk of confiscation, only import porn with content no more explicit than R18 videos and DVD

[Guest GaySacGuy]

What's illegal about photos of adults?

 

I quote the following from Gaydarnation:

"To avoid the risk of confiscation, only import porn with content no more explicit than R18 videos and DVD

[Bob]

In the US, when they slide your passport through their little machine, it tells them what's on the passport, and brings up your information...which includes your flight number.

 

I presumed that all the inherent passport information would come up on the screen when they swiped the passports, but how the heck would my flight number come up? Unless, in my case, they have EVA's computer linked to theirs, that sounds a bit implausible.

 

I'm always asked what countries I visited and, in the last several years, it has been only Thailand. Other than that, I've never been hassled or had anything (suitcase, carry-on, laptop, or digital camera) searched.

[Guest buckeroo2]

I presumed that all the inherent passport information would come up on the screen when they swiped the passports, but how the heck would my flight number come up? Unless, in my case, they have EVA's computer linked to theirs, that sounds a bit implausible.

 

I'm always asked what countries I visited and, in the last several years, it has been only Thailand. Other than that, I've never been hassled or had anything (suitcase, carry-on, laptop, or digital camera) searched.

I must the fit their profile. In the last twelve trips into the U.S. from Thailand I have been waived through once - the other 11 times they stopped me and did a search. They have never found anything questionable so that is not the reason for ongoing searches. BTW, I always enter through San Francisco.

[Guest luvthai]

I think SFO DTW MSP and Chicago are the worst for customs. I seldom have trouble if I enter thru LAX or EWR.

[Guest beachlover]

Personally, I think it's crazy to not carry a laptop just because you are going to be searched on entry. My laptop is the one thing I couldn't travel without... I could lose clothes, luggage, toiletries, shoes, everything else and replace them within an hour or two but my not my laptop!

 

Surely, a large enough number of travelers carry laptops these days that they can't search every one that comes through.

 

But I supposed if you just want something purely for Gayromeo... buy a netbook when you are in the States. You can probably get one new for $200 - $400. Or if it's a throw-away you don't care about, you could even get a second hand one off eBay for even less. Once you're done with it in Thailand, sell it or give it to someone.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

An even cheaper solution is to buy an external hard drive to use for things you don't want customs to see and dispose of it when you leave Thailand.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

Personally, I think it's crazy to not carry a laptop just because you are going to be searched on entry. My laptop is the one thing I couldn't travel without... I could lose clothes, luggage, toiletries, shoes, everything else and replace them within an hour or two but my not my laptop!

 

Surely, a large enough number of travelers carry laptops these days that they can't search every one that comes through.

 

If you travel to the US, I would think twice before taking your notebook, especially if you are coming from Thailand. I know that lots of people have no problems, but....If you are checked, your notebook can be kept for weeks for "inspection" and may never work again when it is returned to you. I personally carry no data storage devices of any kind through US Customs, and makes for an easy speedy process.

[Guest luvthai]

Where would be the best place to look for a good useable laptop? It would need to be set up for use in english. Is it still possible to buy the Loxinfo minutes for internet access?