THanks for the reply, Joe...Yes, both Kobos are running 1.9.14.
Apparently, some Barnes and Nobles "Nook" also suffers from the same problem of not being able to attach to WEP networks with Shared Key Authentication, only OPEN ones.
http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/nook-review-2.html reports:
For networks secured with WEP, NOOK uses only Open Key authentication and will not connect if the router is set to accept only Shared Key authentication.