Online Services Cannot Identify My Computer

[martinjdz]

I am running Kubuntu 24.04 on a barebones desktop PC with an ASUS motherboard. My PC connects to a TP-Link Router through a short Ethernet cable. Using a much longer Ethernet cable, the TP-Link Router connects to a Motorola cable modem, which provides access to XFinity (Comcast) Internet services. I have NO firewall applications running. All Wifi is turned off. I mostly use the Brave Browser with the uBlock Origin add-blocking plugin.

For some reason, when I log into my bank account, credit card account, eBay account, Google GMail account, or auto insurance account, I get an email message telling me that an unknown device (or an unknown user) has recently logged in. I am directed to ignore this message if the person logging in was me. These warning e-mail messages are being produced in more and more of the online accounts and services that I use.

Note: About five years ago, I was using MS Windows 10 (which I later abandoned for Linux). I had the same network configuration (router, modem, etc.), but I never experienced this difficulty. The identification problem started after I switched to Linux.

The attached text file shows some examples of the e-mail warnings that I have received.

Recently, I created an X (twitter) online account. I got a couple of these warning messages from X (recent login from an unknown device). About 4-5 days later, I was notified by e-mail that my account had been canceled because I [allegedly] had supplied fraudulent identification. I have been unable to reach anyone at X (even by e-mail) to resolve this problem.

I somehow need to determine why remote systems cannot properly identify me.

• Could the TP-Link Router, which is between my PC and the cable modem, be hiding my identity by putting everything in an additional Ethernet data frame?
• Is Ubuntu (KDE) simply incompatible with systems that were designed for MS Windows?
• Is Brave Browser hiding my identity from the outside world?
• Could the problem be XFinity? I know that the signal intensity that I get from XFinity is kind of low. There are times when I must restart my XFinity service, because the XFinity server dropped me. (The server could no longer see me, because the signal was too low.) Perhaps I cannot be identified because of a poor signal quality.

I would appreciate any advice that you can give me.

Thanks.

[Snowhog]

Please confirm: Are you running 24.04 or 22.04. You state 24.04, but you posted in 22.04.

[martinjdz]

I am running Ubuntu Linux 24.04 with the KDE Desktop Environment. (I previously did use 20.04 and then 22.04. In those versions, I had the exact same problem that I just described.) Sorry. I posted in the wrong place.

[Virginio Miranda]

I am running Kubuntu 24.04 on a barebones desktop PC with an ASUS motherboard. My PC connects to a TP-Link Router through a short Ethernet cable. Using a much longer Ethernet cable, the TP-Link Router connects to a Motorola cable modem, which provides access to XFinity (Comcast) Internet services. I have NO firewall applications running. All Wifi is turned off. I mostly use the Brave Browser with the uBlock Origin add-blocking plugin.

For some reason, when I log into my bank account, credit card account, eBay account, Google GMail account, or auto insurance account, I get an email message telling me that an unknown device (or an unknown user) has recently logged in. I am directed to ignore this message if the person logging in was me. These warning e-mail messages are being produced in more and more of the online accounts and services that I use.

Note: About five years ago, I was using MS Windows 10 (which I later abandoned for Linux). I had the same network configuration (router, modem, etc.), but I never experienced this difficulty. The identification problem started after I switched to Linux.

The attached text file shows some examples of the e-mail warnings that I have received.

Recently, I created an X (twitter) online account. I got a couple of these warning messages from X (recent login from an unknown device). About 4-5 days later, I was notified by e-mail that my account had been canceled because I [allegedly] had supplied fraudulent identification. I have been unable to reach anyone at X (even by e-mail) to resolve this problem.

I somehow need to determine why remote systems cannot properly identify me.

• Could the TP-Link Router, which is between my PC and the cable modem, be hiding my identity by putting everything in an additional Ethernet data frame?
• Is Ubuntu (KDE) simply incompatible with systems that were designed for MS Windows?
• Is Brave Browser hiding my identity from the outside world?
• Could the problem be XFinity? I know that the signal intensity that I get from XFinity is kind of low. There are times when I must restart my XFinity service, because the XFinity server dropped me. (The server could no longer see me, because the signal was too low.) Perhaps I cannot be identified because of a poor signal quality.

I would appreciate any advice that you can give me.

Thanks.

Remove uBlock Origin add-blocking plugin and restart the browser. See how it performs.

About a long ethernet cable between the tp link and the motorola cable modem, buy some cheap switch and put it in the middle of the road ( if you Can ).

[Snowhog]

I am running Ubuntu Linux 24.04

Thank you. I moved the topic.

[Qqmike]

Virginio is suggesting a first step toward a possible solution.

I am just chiming in to say that I get those messages all the time -- for years, from all sorts of places I use -- and I just ignore them.
It's not a problem, there is nothing wrong, they just can't identify your device for 100% sure and informing you.
Sometimes I get 'unknown device,' sometimes 'a Linux device,' and probably other such emails I get that I'm forgetting at the moment.