IFi Zen Stream connection problem — hardwired from Wi-Fi extender

I’m at my wits’ end with this damn thing and hope you guys can help or I’m taking a sledgehammer to it.  I’m using Qobuz through mConnectHD and I’ve got the Zen Stream tethered to a TP-Link Wi-Fi extender with an Ethernet cable and can get started, but a few minutes in I get a message “Renderer not responding” and then mconnect stops working.  I’ve got the extender connected via my iPhone’s hotspot because my Wi-Fi currently sucks and that connection seems ok, but staying connected to the Zen Stream seems to be the problem.  What settings should I have in the iFi app for a hardwired connection?  Should the Hotspot still be connected, and if so to what?  In my iPad’s Wi-Fi connections (my iPad that I use for the mconnect is connected to my phone’s hotspot as well) I have options for iFi-streamer, iPhone-EXT, and iphone-5GEXT in addition to just iPhone, but when I switch to iFi Streamer or iPhone-EXT to get the Hotspot light to lock on after I get the Renderer not responding message mConnect still doesn’t work .  I’ve tried every combo and nothing stays connected to the Zen Stream in mconnect and then the iFi Streamer disappears as an option under UPnP devices.  I’m guessing it’s a setup thing somewhere with the Zen Stream but can’t for the life of me figure out what it is or how to fix this.  Sorry for the wordy post but wanted to give as much info as possible cause I know the devil’s often in the details with this kinda stuff.  Really hope someone here can help because iFi is totally useless for support (I tried them before when my Wi-Fi connection failed, which is why I’m now trying the hardwired route via the Ethernet extender), and in the meantime I’m gonna look for my sledgehammer just in case.  Argh!