Update:  all is sorted now after I had installed a 3rd party firewall and antivirus. I am using two antivirus programs, one of which is ClamAV for Windows or ClamWin.  It is not a real-time scanner but it is most excellent on scheduled scans, also email scans. The other firewall + antivirus will not be disclosed here, but suffice to say that all my service ports are now in full STEALTH mode, it has disabled Windows Firewall and I am a most happy man for now. This should be a learning exercise for us all, as the common belief is that Windows Firewall is quite good. Proven to be incorrect.  
As the native firewall app in Windows is mediocre, I have been using 3rd party solutions for many years. Now that I am on Windows 8, a big annoyance is that Windows Firewall activates itself on start up, even though marked to be OFF.  Every time I reboot, I have to manually go and disable it as it interferes with the superior firewalls that are running. Windows firewall makes my netBIOS visible to others and also some service ports are marked as masked but not invisible. I do not want any of my system to be seen by others and Windows firewall just is not good enough. How do I permanently disable it in Windows, other than checking the usual boxes?  
[Moved] Windows 8 Firewall