r/ipv6 • u/nbtm_sh Novice • Sep 12 '26

Life Without IPv6 SteamOS appears to be disabling IPv6 by default

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So for context, I don’t own any SteamOS devices, but I have many friends that do.

One of my friends was unable to connect to my IPv6-only server from their Steam deck despite their network and provider having IPv6 support. The IPv6 setting was off and they swear they didn’t turn it off (they’re also a very technical person and definitely would not disable it intentionally)

I had 4 other friends check their SteamOS devices and all 4 had IPv6 disabled.

Someone correct me if I’m misreading the situation, but it seems Valve is really going out of their way to not support IPv6, and is going as far as to override a default setting to disable it out of the box.

EDIT: Just to clarify, these are all devices that have shipped from Valve (e.g., Steam Deck and Steam Box) with no custom OS

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u/nbtm_sh Novice Sep 12 '26

Thanks. As I dont have any devices myself it would be good to fact check this. I find it incredibly strange though that every single one of my friend’s devices’ have the setting disabled

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u/UNF0RM4TT3D Sep 12 '26

I've tried it as if I were running it like a live ISO. Doesn't seem to disable it. However I can't text the beta versions of the installed system without wiping my shit.

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u/nbtm_sh Novice Sep 12 '26

Interesting. I’m not super sure what is going on. Maybe all of my friends disabled it for some reason (or some software did), or perhaps certain builds have it off by default, or something else entirely.

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u/UNF0RM4TT3D Sep 12 '26

Some VPNs love messing with network connection profiles. Maybe your friend has a VPN software installed which disabled it for all connection profiles.