Try this:
echo “options rtl8723be fwlps=0” | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf
That’ll add an option to the driver to disable power savings, then reload the driver using:
sudo modprobe -r rtl8723be
sudo modprobe rtl8723be
As for the WiFi icon showing wrong strength status my advice is to ignore it for now, it’s most likely due to the multitude of active bugs in network-manager et al.
Instead, use the following command to monitor connectivity:
ping -s16 8.8.8.8
If you get ping replies under 10ms consider you have a good connection, and don’t bother looking at the icon.