Just running down after a tough day so not much done, but I did just pick up on this:
Counterclockwise means that Firefox tries to connect to the server. You should see the Looking up and Connecting messages at the bottom of the window. Once a connection has been established and Firefox is waiting for the server then the throbber will rotate clockwise. The colors of the throbber can depend on the Firefox and possibly the Windows theme you use.
It certainly seems as though one is uploading stuff at this time which is typically below 1.0 speed test, and sometimes much lower.
Today, PlusNet support
did not know about the reverse circle. Many folk seem to think it's when Uploading. For the first time, I was not at all impressed with the operative. Nice but dim, is how I'd describe him.