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The "Internet" operates on a Network using a standard called "TCP/IP." Macs, Windows, and most computers sold today have TCP/IP capability. Once you are hooked into your ISP (or your campus computer, etc.), you are on the Internet, part of this massive TCP/IP network.
There's a saying that "nobody knows you're a dog on the Internet." What this means is that no one can tell if you aare using a Mac. a Wintel machine, a modem, ethernet or what have you. You are simply a number (an IP number). You are like every other computer on the Internet. Once connected, you look the same as a computer given the address, say www.apple.com.
AOL, however, does not give you a TCP/IP connection. Yes, you can access the World Wide Web, send and receive e-mail, access Usenet newsgroups, etc. But what you are doing is accessing AOL's machines, which then act as a gateway to the Internet. Think of the Internet as a giant library, with stacks and stacks of books, and each dialup company as a doorway to the library. With an ISP, you can actually go in to the library and pick any book and bring it back. With AOL, you don't really go into the library proper; you can only stop at the circulation desk and ask the librarians to go to the stacks and get a book. (Thanks to Jonathan Rynd for analogy.)
The Internet also has standards for e-mail, namely POP3 for mail collection and SMTP for sending mail. AOL does not use these standards either. As Eudora uses Internet standards including POP3 and SMTP, Eudora won't pick up your AOL e-mail. Note that AOL's latest software (using "AOL Link") does let you use various "client" (as opposed to server software mentioned above) software requiring TCP/IP, as long as you have a valid Internet address with which to use them. For example, if you don't like AOL's Web browser, you can use Netscape, Microsoft, etc., and point it to any web site in the world. Similarly, you can run Eudora while connected to AOL, and access POP3 and SMTP servers at an account elsewhere (barring firewalls at that site). But AOL does not offer POP3 and SMTP.
What this means in a real-worl example: I currently have an email account (a POP3 account) with the ISP ka.net. If I were connected via AOL, I could check my mail at ka.net using their AOL Link. I could not, however, check my mail on AOL using Eudora.
This is not to say that AOL is not for you. While I don't have a need for AOL, there are some cases (no pun intended) in which I recommend AOL:
I recommend going with local ISPs as long as you don't need to access your account all over the country. The advantage of ATT/MCI/Netcom and other national providers is that they will have local phone numbers in more places. But keep in mind that if you are visiting friends who have an Internet connection, you can still check your e-mail, newsgroups, etc. via their connection. And if you only travel rarely, when you do you could make a quick call to your ISP to download e-mail, shut off the connection, and call back later in the day. It all depends on how often you will need to access your ISP from various parts of the country.
Get recommendations from friends.
I would not pay more than $19.95/month for a connection, unless there was something extra the ISP was offering that other services do not.
Sometimes when I tell people to check their settings, they use the above line. Even after they get the correct settings from their ISP to fix the problem, they want to know why things worked for a while and then suddenly stopped working.
A lot of the cases I have seen where this is the case it ends up that the ISP changed something (most probably the POP3 machine's name). The other possible cause of your problems is a problem with the ISP's DNS (Domain Server Server, the computer that tells your computer where on the Internet your mail is). I would first check with your ISP if you are not able to check mail and you have not changed any connection software (OpenTransport, etc.)
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