Norton 360 says VPN is off. SecureVPN says it is on. What gives? Is this not the same VPN?
They are 2 different products. 360 naturally has anti malware, smart firewall and vpn. Secure VPN only has vpn, but a much better interface. Never run the two at the same time. Pick the one you want to use and uninstall the other.
You are using two separate apps. Norton 360 and Norton Secure VPN. They are not connected to each other and will report their status separately in their respective app.
BTW it is not recommended to have both apps installed. If might cause strange behaviours when using the VPN. It is best to uninstall the standalone Secure VPN and just use the VPN feature in 360.