Hi,
Am trying Avast for the first time and have a few questions? I’m using the free version of Avast 4.8 on windows XP,I use these email clients,AOL,GMAIL,YAHOO and HOTMAIL…does Avast work with them & if so does it put a note at bottom of email saying :This version was checked by Avast ,AVG did this? Do I have to configure the AV email scanner with the clients I use or does it Auto do this & if not how do I do this ?
Thanks 
You mentioned that you use the following email clients XXX, etc. they aren’t email clients, they are email accounts, an email client is something like Thunderbird, Outlook Express, etc. So what email client (program) do you use ?
The avast email scanner is email client specific, e.g. it works with email programs that use pop3/smtp protocols. Yahoo and Hotmail are webmail accounts and are scanned by the Web Shield as they are viewed through your browser (unless you have paid for pop3 accounts).
Gmail is the same if viewed through your browser, but differs if it is using HTTPS (secure connection), in which case avast’s web shield can’t scan encrypted traffic (that is the point of https). It is possible using a third party application to enable avast to scan gmail email downloaded in an email client, but that needs to be set-up.
AOHell is a whole different ball game in that it uses a proprietary email client and protocol and not standard pop3/smtp, so that isn’t scanned.
I use email accounts…sorry I typed Clients
So all my email accounts are being scanned by AVAST Web Sheild your saying?
Welcome to the forums, picagal66.
( Removed because of correction by AlanF below. )
Left click the avast ’ a ’ icon, click the Details… >> button if one is on the pop-up. That will display all the avast providers, select the Web Shield one and you should see what is being scanned, e.g. the Last scanned: and Scanned count: fields should be constantly updated as you browse yore email.
Gotcha now and tnx for your help 
No problem, glad I could help.
Welcome to the forums.
As such, the emails are not downloaded onto your computer as they would be with an actual email client.
Well … that really is not true - in fact far from it.
The difference is still fairly simple.
An email client downloads the body of the email and any attachments to your system as part of its function.
When you use a Webmail account then the body of the email is still downloaded to your system. If it is plain text it is displayed and is safe whether you use a mail client or not. If it is an html email then the html content is executed on your system whether you use a browser or an email client - there is absolutely no difference in the two. This is just the same as the need to download the html of web pages to your system to execute them. There is no magic here - it is misleading to suggest that somehow you see emails from a Webmail account without downloading part of them to your system.
The difference is only in the attachments.
The Webmail server will only download the attachments if you ask it to - for example you want to see them - then they are downloaded to your system to be displayed. Again - no magic - they cannot be displayed unless they are downloaded to your system and displayed there.