Timber Valley SKP Park of Oregon, Inc

WPA2 is the security protocol that has been used with Wi-Fi systems since 2008 with no known vulnerabilities. However, a university researcher recently discovered a method to trick it into accepting a reused/known encryption key (KRACK), allowing data to be seen. This vulnerability was made public a few days ago, and you may have seen something about it on the news.

Yesterday, the manufacturer of the radios used in our park’s Wi-Fi systems released updated firmware (burned in software) that eliminates that vulnerability. All 56 of the access point and linking radios in the park’s Wi-Fi system have now been updated to the new version firmware. Similar software updates for all client devices (computers, tablets, ebook readers, cellphones, and the like) should be available shortly from their vendors, although older devices may not be supported any longer.

Our park’s Wi-Fi systems have been upgraded, but it is still up to the individual users to upgrade their device’s software (or allow them to be upgraded by the device’s vendor) for full protection from this newly discovered vulnerability.

Two additional new Wi-Fi towers were installed yesterday on Dogwood Place, lot 146 (SKPb-146) and lot 156 (SKPb-156).  This brings this year’s total of new towers to 7, the limit of the budget for this year.  We still have some areas of inadequate coverage along a few edges of the park which we hope to address next summer.  The updated tower map can be seen on the Wi-Fi page.

Please make sure your name and Lot # are marked on propane bottles or on a card taped to the bottle. This is important so we can identify the tank with a name and lot number.  Tanks WILL NOT be filled if the writing is not legible or not marked. Due to the increased amount of tanks being filled, it would be helpful and easier for those filling tanks and writing information on the receipts.

Thanks for your assistance.

Our flags were flown at half staff to mark the passing of Jimmie Atwood, lot 29, on September 30, 2017. Jimmie and wife,Connie Sue became members of Timber Valley, just 2 days after the official opening of the park in March, 1996.
Graveside service will be October 9th at 10am at the National Cemetery, (new annex) 913 NW Garden Valley Blvd, in Roseburg. Timber Valley sends it’s sincerest condolences to Connie Sue, family and friends.

The notoriously poor Wi-Fi coverage along Hummingbird Lane has been greatly improved with the addition of four new towers there this week.  Wi-Fi operates in the 2.4GHz unlicensed ISM radio band, which is shared with microwave ovens, and is absorbed by the moisture in tree leaves and needles, leaving very little to travel beyond (5GHz Wi-Fi suffers the same problem). Thus, the new tower on Lot 31 (SKPa-31) has an additional radio to relay the Office’s Internet source around the corner of the tree line to feed the other new towers (SKPa-35, SKPa-38, and SKPa-42) on Hummingbird.

At the same time, two existing towers were moved across Quail Run to get away from trees for better coverage; SKPa-48 is now SKPa-67, and SKPa-53 is now SKPa-62. These two towers are located at gaps in the tree line to improve coverage to lots 81 through 87, which have had poor coverage from the Clubhouse due to the surrounding trees. Former Wi-Fi users of SKPa-48 and SKPa-53 will need to select one of the new towers on their devices to reconnect with the park’s system. The tower password is the same as all the rest of the towers.

In addition, another new tower (SKPa-19) was installed on Creekside to improve coverage there and in Boondocking.

The new and relocated towers were installed with the power cables running down the inside of the pipe rather than attached to the outside to give a cleaner appearence and to protect the cable. A map of the new and existing Wi-Fi towers can be found on the timbervalleyskp.com website’s Wi-Fi page.

More equipment is on the way to improve coverage in the south half of the park.