WALTHAM, MASS. - The benefits of wireless LANs intrigue potential users and have them hopeful about the technology despite what they perceive as significant shortcomings.

That was the conclusion of a panel of corporate IT executives who recently spoke about enterprise IT strategies at a meeting of the Massachusetts Telecommunication Council.

In the wireless realm, security ranked tops among their concerns, but managing 802.11b and 802.11g wireless spectrum in urban areas and hospitals, and the restrictions of proprietary protocols also worried the group.

"We're going to populate our new building with a wireless LAN," said Bill Rebello, director of infrastructure and support for medical response provider Lifeline in Framingham, Mass. "We put a few in the old building to see how business responded to it. Users want it."

Lifeline is evaluating equipment with an eye on making sure data traveling over the wireless network can't be hacked. A simple test of the technology was enough to scare away Dianne Mortenson, MIS director for the Legal Sea Foods restaurant chain. She set up a small test LAN at the company's Boston headquarters, "and I could get into the LAN in the company across the street," she said. That was enough for her to put the technology on hold.

While wireless access in the restaurants might increase productivity of managers, she said she has to be convinced it wouldn't present a potential weak spot in Legal's network. Legal also hasn't figured out whether it would be good business to offer wireless Internet access to customers because it might encourage them to linger without buying more food. "We're not a coffee shop," she said.

Mortenson also said that the proprietary nature of security protocols for 802.11 wireless gear makes her hesitant to use it as well.

For John Powers, chief administrative officer for IS at CareGroup Healthcare System, interoperability is a requirement for wireless gear he installs in the group's hospitals, which include Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Powers said he hopes for interoperable authentication and encryption schemes between all wireless cards and all wireless access points so visiting doctors legitimately and safely can tap into hospital resources using their own machines. "Trying to accommodate people who work in two wireless environments who have their own [network interface cards] has not been easy," he says.