Cox Upload and VPN Are a Poor Combination
A VPN adds 10 to 20 percent encryption overhead in both directions. On Cox with 35 Mbps upload that drops effective working upload to roughly 28 Mbps during active sessions. For a Las Vegas professional uploading secure files through an encrypted tunnel that constraint shows up every afternoon when the neighborhood node fills up.
On AT&T Fiber 300 that same overhead still leaves 240 Mbps of clean working upload. That is a professional working environment not a daily workaround.