Earthlink "Total Access" software stores email a proprietary format.
The file has the extension ".mbx" and can be opened in Microsoft
Access, but the email text is stored in binary blobs.
Earthlink tech support refuses to help, and I pushed them hard.

I will pay to locate a program or service that has successfully converted
Earthlink TotalAccess .mbx files to Eudora or Outlook format. I need
sufficient information to speak to a person who has done it.

According to this http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=mbx&Search=Search
it is a format that Eudora or Outlook should be able to open.

I have been on tech support with Earthlink and Earthlink/Sprint over
the same issue, but I am willing to pay for help migrating to any more
robust email program, anything to get out of TotalAccess.

Everyone should know the following: 

TotalAccess has a storage limit of 1.95MB on your hard drive.  This
has nothing to do with keeping things on the server.  They claim this
is "industry standard."

They will not help you sort out this problem.  They will politely
waltz you around in circles and send surveys afterwards, but they will
not help.

The solutions they have:  delete, compact, export, do not work and do
not alleviate the problem.

I am quite computer literate and am not exaggerating.  I have tried to
export into The Bat, MailNavigator, PocoMail, and countless other
program and have not succeeded.  It is maddening that Earthlink is so
obstinate.

I can now answer my original question. Total Access uses an email
client called MailBox, and a better version of that is available as a
standalone product from Earthlink. It imports email from Total Access
just fine. I installed a free IMAP server named MailTraq on Windows XP
pro, synched it with Earthlink Mailbox, and then synched it with
Mozilla Thunderbird.

It took a marathon hacking session, but it seemed to work. I don't
know if Total Access's IMAP features are good enough to skip the
Mailbox step.

to mister4u: In my question, I got the file extension wrong. Total
Access uses a file with extension called .MDB, not .MBX.