White and Blue Signal Strength Bars - Verizon?

Sometimes I have white bars, after my phones "wakes up", and I will try to go to the browser and it says "cannot connect check internet connection", or something like that. Anyways is there an option in the phone to were I can tell it to always be connected even when not in use? I know it will kill battery but I want to use it for my wifi hotspot mode. I can at least keep it hooked up when in that mode. When I use that feature it will work for a little while but then it will drop the connection and all devices stop working, since internet is required.
Any tips would be appreciated, Thank You