I have tried just about everything. All instructions followed (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3325). All incoming connections allowed. Linking succeeds: I can create a Link with 4 numbers. Iphone appears in the keynote remote preferences section. I tried reinstalling Keynote remote. But I have never been able to get keynote remote to actually link to keynote to start up a presentation. Am I missing something?
I had the same issue on a Tiger installation. It works just fine on the system with Leopard, probably because Leopard is set up to present a dialog; "Do you want to allow incoming connections to Keynote?".
The firewall logs on my Tiger installation show me that it uses different unprivileged source and destination ports every time:
Jan 21 20:49:04 XXXXX ipfw: 12190 Deny TCP 192.168.254.10:51409 192.168.254.8:49163 in via en1
Feb 1 20:59:03 XXXXX ipfw: 12190 Deny TCP 192.168.254.9:49593 192.168.254.8:52084 in via en1
There is no "Allow all incoming connections" in Tiger as far as i can see, so you could set up a very broad rule, which i would not recommend.
My suggestion for a workaround would be to temporarily turn off your firewall when you are giving a presentation. Just leave the dialog open so you remember to turn it back on again once you are done.
Of course this is not a good solution, as it temporarily degrades your security level.
Your problem is probably that your computer's firewall is blocking the connection. However, just in case you are using the downloaded demo version of iWork, I have seen a couple instances where the demo would not work with the remote program but as soon as the program was serialized it did. (The shrink wrapped version doesn't required a serial number but you can turn the demo into the full version by buying a serial number.)
I have two Macs. One with Leopard, one Tiger. It works with the firewall turned on on Leopard and with the firewall turned off on Tiger.
I have both iWork '08 and iWork '09 on both laptops. iWork '08 is registered, '09 is not yet available in the UAE, so the '09 version is indeed a trial version on both laptops. This is not the issue.
For the original poster;
Please try it with the firewall turned off, just to rule out that this is causing it.
If you still have the problem after that;
What version of Mac OSX are you using?
Did you check your firewall logs?
Can you run tcpdump to see if the packets actually arrive on your interface?
This is how I made it work on my MacBook running Leopard and the iWork DEMO:
(1) Allow incoming connections for Keynote in the Firewall.
(2) When starting Keynote '09 you are presented with a splash screen. Klick on the right panel (i. e. trial/demo use), do not simply close this window in the upper left corner with the "red button". Keynote is doing its magic handshake with Apple and after that you will be able to choose your iPhone/iPod touch in the preferences dialogue of Keynote.
I have a paid version of Keynote. The Firewall, and Little snitch both allow keynote connections, but Keynote remote still does not work on one MacBook Pro, works on the other one. I tried and compared almost every possible settings but could not find a way to make it work.
