@ MichaelD,.
You are connecting the laptop to your main wifi network running on a different IP address and we would not be able to access the Web UI of Almond. Try to connect your laptop to the Almond's wifi network even though you may not have the access to the internet, you can still access the Web UI to upload the software.
Yes, you can also connect the laptop directly to the Almond's LAN port (black) to update the software by accessing the Almond's Web UI.