iPhone hotspot flakiness

I just got my first iPhone (a 5C) to connect to the internet on the Sasktel network using a Wilson Sleek amplifier. Once the connection gets going, it's great (astonishingly fast), but it's hard to get it to that point and I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.



Here are the steps I take to get online in the morning:



1) turn on the iPhone

2) turn on hotspot sharing

3) turn on Airport on my MBA and select my iPhone



Most days, I get an 'connection timeout' message on my Mac. To get the connection to work, I do one or all of the following:



-turn hotspot sharing off and on

-turn cellular data on and off

-go to airport mode and back to normal mode



When I finally get the MBA to connect to the iPhone, I get about five minutes of internet, and then pages stop loading. I then have to go through the above steps or even reboot my phone to reestablish an internet connection. I don't have any trouble connecting to the iPhone at this point, just in getting an internet connection.



Once the internet connection is established (which can take up to an hour, as it has this morning), I have no trouble at all, and I'm usually using the iPhone as a hotspot for 10 to 14 hours straight.



I'm obviously doing something wrong or in the incorrect sequence, but I can't figure out what.



Another thing I've noticed is that I lose my iPhone's cellular connection to the network frequently if I don't leave the iPhone plugged in. Is that normal?



Thanks for any insight,



Rae

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