Backblaze is the fiery backup service well known for their series of custom red-hot storage pods used to encapsulate all of your sensitive data, and today they’re launching a new location service designed to help you recover a lost or stolen computer. Locate My Computer aids in the recovery of a computer by reporting the IP address, the ISP the computer is on, the time the computer was last online, and by showing the computer’s location on a map. Mapping updates may take a while (after I enabled Locate My Computer for the first time I received a notice that it may take up to four hours), but time and IP address related information is updated frequently. Blackblaze also provides links to various IP services to help track down the exact location (possibly even the house address) of the stolen machine.

Locate My Computer is available immediately and is free to all Backblaze customers. Mapping is enabled for new users; users with existing accounts can “Turn On” mapping. To turn mapping on or off, sign-in and visit the Locate My Computer page. (Please click “Check for Updates” from your menu icon to ensure you are using the latest version.)

The update is free to all Backblaze customers. To enable the new feature, simply install the latest Backblaze update over your previous installation before turning the service on.

[via Backblaze]