# renting laptop



## steeleweed (Aug 20, 2010)

I know one can rent cellphone abroad if one's US phone will not connect abroad on one does not wish to take it through US Customs. Is it possible to rent a laptop in Mexico?

Appreciate any feedback.

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## Bodega (Apr 20, 2016)

*Rentals*

My experience has been that the rental business in general here is not nearly as prolific as in the states. Tool rentals, for larger items such as air compressors, concrete work, scaffolding, etc, are available, but they're not nearly as common as can be found stateside. I have never seen a laptop rental, but I have never looked for one. Lots of internet cafes around, and they are cheap. Good luck.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

steeleweed said:


> I know one can rent cellphone abroad if one's US phone will not connect abroad on one does not wish to take it through US Customs. Is it possible to rent a laptop in Mexico?
> 
> Appreciate any feedback.
> 
> [cut]


In 4+ years I have never seen rental of anything other than a car. Probably out of fear of never seeing it again or the condition it would be in when it was returned.

In several locations in Mexico there are 'technology plazas' where you can find used computer equipment at reasonable prices. Don't know where you are heading in Mexico but here is a link for a used Toshiba laptop available for $130 USD with the O/S. 

Laptops, Ultrabooks, Netbooks compara precios | Plaza de la Tecnología

The last time we re-upped our landline with Telmex they gave me a free HP tablet.

Edit : and there is always MercadoLibre, where I have had nothing but success.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

horseshoe846 said:


> In 4+ years I have never seen rental of anything other than a car. Probably out of fear of never seeing it again or the condition it would be in when it was returned.
> 
> In several locations in Mexico there are 'technology plazas' where you can find used computer equipment at reasonable prices. Don't know where you are heading in Mexico but here is a link for a used Toshiba laptop available for $130 USD with the O/S.
> 
> ...


Construction equipment rental is common as well. I looked into renting a scaffold (andamio) for some work I was doing. It turned out that a month of rental would have paid for one, so I just bought one. You can rent party supplies, tables, chairs, juke boxes, or just hire a entire event center of course. But none of this helps when a computer is what is needed.


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

Not convenient but plenty of businesses exist nationwide that have 10-20 PCs on site that u can use for very low rates, save ur work to stick drives or print directly from the rented computer to their printers. Internet access of course.

Service is for Mexicans who can't afford their own laptops so it's very, very cheap to foreigners.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

There are dangers to using internet cafe computers, however. You should assume that your privacy is compromised. Even reputable internet cafes may have deployed software that lets the cafe operator see what's on your screen in a legitimate attempt to help people with problems. This can be exploited by a bored or malicious operator to snoop on what you do. Internet cafe computers are quite frequently intentionally infected with viruses and keyloggers by nefarious customers trying to steal passwords and account info. 

It's really not safe to use an internet cafe computer to, for example, log into your account at a bank to check your balance. Using them to log into an email account is dangerous too, because someone could get your email password and then dig through your old emails to get other personal info. Using them to buy something over the web with your credit card could get the card and its security info compromised. At the very least, if you use an internet cafe while on a tourist trip, change your passwords as soon as you get home.

The type of cafe software where the rented computer has no hard disk of its own and creates a virtual (RAM) hard disk that it downloads an OS image to on every boot is probably the safest, but even those are subject to root kits and EFI viruses installed by malicious customers who came before you - and even if not you're still dependent on the cafe operator's honesty.

On the other hand, renting computers, should you be able to find one, presents most of the same dangers as well. The rental company will undoubtedly have all the software set up for you, and you will be instructed not to worry about trying to wipe the computer before you return it as they will promise to do that too.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

Along those same lines - on a recent vacation we stayed at a (4 star) hotel which provided 'free internet access'. I had my own laptop with me. The hotel provided an 'open' network. I hardly used the laptop but did check my emails using Thunderbird. Shortly after returning home I received a weird email from gmail asking me to confirm my request for a 'new' email address which was the same as my earlier id with a 3 digit numeral appended. I immediately changed the password on my original gmail account. Nothing else weird has happened since. (And I have Malware bytes and Norton Security running on the laptop all the time).


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