No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

Thus begins "The Eve Of The War", Chapter One of H.G. Wells' classic yarn War of the Worlds. And, just as the fictional onlookers in the above passage, it's equally incredulous to us now that on the night on October 30th 1938, when this story was first read over what was then a new-fangled wireless device, a nation was gripped by hysterical panic.

The page about this War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast includes some audio clips of the actual show - so you can try and judge for yourself what it might have been like on that night in 1938.

Though the chances that you were listening to that radio show on that halloween over half a century ago are small, you will, I'm sure, be able to recall your experiences as a newcomer to the Internet - which is as new today as radio was all those decades ago. In fact the technology is changing so fast that it's not far from the truth to claim that we're all newcomers, still!

If you use email, you'll probably have received an email warning about the 'Good Times Virus', or 'Penpal Greetings', or perhaps 'AOL4Free'. Such messages predict dire consequences if you should even open the message. Simply reading the message will, so it claims, unleash "a virus that will damage your hard drive and destroy your computer" (at the very least). Don't Panic. The chances are that the message is a hoax.

What should you do if you receive a message that you think might be genuine? Well, the first thing to do is to realize that genuine problems affecting the Internet will be more than adequately publicized through many channels. If you feel sufficiently public-spirited to want to copy such warnings to all of your friends and associates, the first thing you should do is to try and determine whether it's a known hoax. Believe me, you'll be doing yourself a favour!

Symantec's Anti-Virus Research Centre contains a list of the more common virus hoaxes - probably not complete, since such lists never can be. If your message isn't listed there, then perhaps it might be genuine - if so, it's probably dealt with by a site that deals with real viruses: one reliable source is the US Dept of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability. Another is the Virus Bulletin, which contains a wealth of in-depth information, and holds an Anti-Virus Developer Index and a list of other Anti-Virus Web Sites.

A little time spent in research will save everyone a lot of wasted time and effort. Above all, whatever you do, don't get eaten by the Martians! :)

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