Rash of Pop ups

We have 3 puters networked at home. One rarely goes on line except for transmitting business proposals. The other access the internet frequently and we are on DSL.

In the past we have only suffered minor to moderate infestation of pop ups. Not too annoying. The other day my dh opened an email from our dsl server offering to sell us a program to get rid of pop ups. He read it and dumped it to the recyle bin. Ever since, everytime he opens the explorer he is inundated with pop ups, so much so, that it slows his ram down tremendously.

Everytime you turn around, someone is selling your something, particularly technologywise, that when you buy it, you have to buy something else to make it work right.

I have a niggling suspicion that in the solicitation email, the server dumped a cookie or something that drew all these pop ups to DH's computer to "inspire" him to buy their product.

Even tho we are networked, my computer has not been affected.

Can we search out that cookie or whatever they dropped in there delete it and get back to normal? And in doing so can we trace it back to the server, (if they dropped it there) and pitch a fit with them for doing that?

We have had this server for 3 years now, we don't get junk mail (not like it was with AOL) and pop ups have only been a minor irritation. I hate to think they did this, but I'm cyincal enough to believe they would to make another buck.

Any ideas? thoughts?

Molly :^(