iPhone photos only sporadically appearing on laptop.

I am totally frustrated. Since updating to iOS 8.4 strange things have happened with our photos. We do not store them in iCloud but used the "My Photo Stream" to automatically send to all of our iCloud devices when connected to Wi-Fi. Somehow, without us changing settings, this is not happening.

Previously we shared across my iPhone 6, husband's iPhone 5S, my MacBook Pro, and our iPad 2. Since the iOS update or sometime around June, the following has happened:

Neither iPhone shares photos with the other (kind of). It is hit and miss (mostly miss).

My Photo Stream used to duplicate my Camera Roll. Again, it is hit and miss. Took two photos of a FedEx box last week that had damage. Camera Roll had both photos, Photo Stream only has one.

Laptop is rarely receiving any photos although it did catch the two of the boxes that were taken in the house using my iPhone 6.

Meanwhile iPad 2 seems to be getting the photos from both iPhones.

Here is what I want to achieve: All photos are shared between the four devices, using Wi-Fi, and without storing the photos in the Cloud. That's what used to happen and I'd like instructions as to how to get that to happen again. Thanks.