VPN improving DSL speed?

[roland]

I have a bonded DSL connection that has been pretty steady at around 35 Mbits for downloading. I recently installed Sonic's VPN software on my Windows 10 PC. I signed on to it and ran a DSL speed test and noted some real craziness. I use 3 sites to check the speed: Ookla, Speakeasy, and DSLReports. On DSLReports the download speed dropped a bit to around 30 Mbits. On the other two sites the download speed increased dramatically up to 40 or 50 Mbits. In all cases the upload speed remained the same at around 2 Mbits. This seems to be pretty consistent. I am at a total loss to understand what is going on. Is this for real or a mirage? Does anybody have any idea about what is going on?

Thanks,
Roland

[polpo]

Speakeasy's speed test is also powered by Ookla. Their speed test uses compressible data, and the Sonic VPN uses an adaptive compression scheme. I get about double my connection's normal speed on Ookla-based speedtests when on Sonic's VPN.