BSS interference with 2 Laptops

[fjcardenas-1]

I am confused. If I have a WAP at home and I want to get internet access from two laptops... will there be interference (or collitions) if both try to download something at the same time?. I think yes because both would use the same channel to communicate with the AP.

[Matthew Ratliff]

NO, but sometimes yes.

Wifi is a shared medium, so some sort of collision avoidance mechanism must be implemented. This mechanism uses small RTS and CTS packets to negotiate who can send and receive. There are still the occasional collisions, but they are normally pretty small.