If you are experiencing intermittent issues communicating with the clock, and find that it will download punches properly only if you ping it before attempting to download, there may be some bad information in your network setup, which could require you to clear some cached information:

On the PC running the WaspTime Server Service (usually the same as the database PC), go to Start > Search and enter cmd.exe. In the results window, right click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator.

In the command prompt window, enter this command:
ipconfig /flushdns
It should respond "Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache".

Next, we also need to flush the ARP table. This command has a little more structure to it. I would advise using this command:
arp -d -a
But with some legwork, you can determine how to delete single entries that appear to be causing problems. See http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/quick-tips-flush-the-arp-cache-in-windows-7/ for an explanation of how to do that.

After clearing both caches, see if you can download from the clock without pinging first.