What you can do about this

It's hard to overestimate how scary this situation is, even if it involves terms and protocols that most people have never heard of. Fortunately, it's rather easy to avoid. Here's what you can do.

Check your wifi gaming router and modem setup. Is the wifi gaming router, which sends out the Wi-Fi signal, a separate device from the modem, which is what the cable or phone line connects to? If you're seeing two different devices, then you don't need to worry about this.

Are the wifi gaming router and modem one single device, sometimes called a home gateway? In other words, does the cable or phone line plug into the same device that's sending out the wifi gaming router signal? If so, take the following steps.

Did you buy the home gateway yourself? Then refer to its instruction manual and figure out how to disable IPv6.

Did your ISP give you the home gateway to use? Then contact your ISP and ask them whether and how IPv6 — pronounced "eye-pee-vee-six" — can be disabled. If the customer-service representative has no idea what you're talking about, ask to be connected to a technician.

If none of the above solutions work, you may want to consider buying your own wifi gaming router. The gateway provided by your ISP can probably be converted to work in modem-only mode, but you'll have to ask your ISP about that.

You could also buy your own modem as well, but you'll want to check with your ISP about which models are compatible with its service.

Modems vs. wifi gaming router： How they're different and what they do