I apologize in advance if this is the wrong forum to post this question in. If there is a better place to ask for help, please let me know!
I have successfully created a website using WAB Developer Edition installed on my local machine and am ready to deploy. I've read and re-read the Deploy your app page, but I don't understand the part about configuring and adding a proxy. I've followed the links to Use proxy and went through both of the blog posts that explain how to set up a proxy. Unfortunately, I am not an IT person and while I have aspirations of being a GIS web developer, I do not know enough to make sense of the reasons why you need to set up a proxy. In short -- I don't know if I need to set up a proxy, nor do I understand how to set one up.
That being said, I don't think the proxy setup is the root of my my problem. I've downloaded the code package onto my GIS web server and unzipped it into my inetpub > wwwroot directory. I've opened IIS and converted that folder to an application. Is there anything else that I need to do to make the website available on the internet? When I try to open the website via the web, I get a plain page with the text, "The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable." I know I've entered the web address correctly, and my other two applications in the Default Web Site directory work fine.
I should add that if I open a browser on my machine and type in \\servername\applicationname, the site works fine. If I try the localhost path on the server, the "app loading" page appears but the app never actually loads.
I'd appreciate any resources that will help me learn more so that I can resolve my issues on my own. I'm eager to expand my knowledge, but am really struggling to find a good starting point.