Hacker or Virus???

From: Eric Rosenwinkel (e.rosenwinkel_at_verizon.net)
Date: 09/25/03 

Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 06:25:12 -0700

Last night I had my DSL connection open and had stepped
away from the computer when suddenly I saw an alert come
up saying the system was shutting down. A timer was
counting down from 1 minute, saying save all work, etc.
Then a box appeared saying 'some Windows XP files were
being overwritten by unrecognized versions, you may need
to insert your Windows XP installation disk.' The system
shut down and when it restarted everything seemed normal
except that it shut down again the same way within about 3
minutes (this time the DSL connection wasn't logged on).
I reinstalled Windows XP (actually I selected the 'repair'
option) and when it finished, I logged on as a different
user (not administrator) and things seemed ok, except that
my DSL network connection icon had disappeared in the
Network Connections panel. I wasn't able to set it up
again so I 'switched users' to the original administrator
user account. On that desktop I had a shortcut to my DSL
connection but it didn't work. Again, the DSL network
connection icon was missing in the Network Connections
panel so I called my ISP tech assistance line. While on
the phone with them, they instructed me to reboot and
after I did that, ALL icons were missing in the Network
Connections panel. About 30 seconds later, the system
shut down on it's own as above. When the dialogue box
saying it was replacing Windows files appeared, I simply
turned off the power and it remains off for the moment.

My computer is not on a network. It's the only computer
in my home. I don't open attachments I don't expect - I
even have the preview pane turned off. However, I did not
have anti-virus software installed at the time and I did
have the telnet service activated, under Administrator
services.

Could this be the work of a hacker, or does it sound like
a virus? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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