I will check the Windows 8 firewall when I get home. I was able to build a workaround once I completed setup through the magic of dynamic DNS and port forwarding.

I set the app to use SSL. Forwarded SSL from router to the HDA and added a sub-domian via DynDNS. Not pretty, but it works.

Spent some more time banging my head into this.

1.) Only my Windows 8 client is having this problem. A mac and an iPad do not.
2.) My Windows 8 DHCP configuration is vanilla. Obviously I need to tweak something. Could Samba be forwarding lookup requests instead of relying on the HDA?

Using the Network Troubleshooter, I failed step 9 - HDA used as DNS on clients?. Here's a paste to help troubleshoot: http://sprunge.us/ZOec

Any assistance is appreciated.

Thank yoiu,