diff --git a/net/net.c b/net/net.c
index c0c0cbe99e..8e67a20abc 100644
--- a/net/net.c
+++ b/net/net.c
@@ -1227,7 +1227,7 @@ static int net_client_init(QemuOpts *opts, bool is_netdev, Error **errp)
     int ret = -1;
     Visitor *v = opts_visitor_new(opts);
 
-    /* Parse convenience option format ip6-net=fec0::0[/64] */
+    /* Parse convenience option format ipv6-net=fec0::0[/64] */
     const char *ip6_net = qemu_opt_get(opts, "ipv6-net");
 
     if (ip6_net) {
@@ -1247,8 +1247,8 @@ static int net_client_init(QemuOpts *opts, bool is_netdev, Error **errp)
         if (substrings[1] &&
             qemu_strtoul(substrings[1], NULL, 10, &prefix_len))
         {
-            error_setg(errp, QERR_INVALID_PARAMETER_VALUE,
-                       "ipv6-prefixlen", "a number");
+            error_setg(errp,
+                       "parameter 'ipv6-net' expects a number after '/'");
             goto out;
         }