imap and mail scanner icon

Hi everyone,

I have been using Avast for some time and have only had my pop3 account. Yesterday was the first time that I set up an AOL Imap account. I can send and receive mail and Avast does put a note in incoming mail and outgoing mail which is normal. The question I have is does the mail scanner icon in the tray supposed to be visible all the time? It never goes away until I completely shut down Netscape 7.2. For my pop3 account, if I am not sending or receiving, the Icon is not visible. Does that mean that the mail scanner is constantly running? I have Netscape set to check mail upon connecting and at 15 minute intervals after that.

Since I never worked with an Imap account before, I did not know if that was normal or is some setting is wrong and needs adjusted. The setup that Aol mail uses is imap.aol.com (port 143) and outgoing smtp (port 587).
I am using Windows XP Pro with Avast Home Edition.

It is normal. The icon is displayed as long as there is a connection with the mail server. Various mail programs manage IMAP connections differently (e.g. close the connection immediately after checking for new mail, or close the connection when you select to view another account, or keep the connection open until the server closes it).

Thanks for the help. I was just worried that something was not working correctly.