01Why it changed IoT
The ESP8266 brought a full Wi-Fi stack to hobbyists for almost nothing. NodeMCU and Wemos D1 are the most common dev boards.
02Arduino IDE setup
- Add board URL: arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json.
- Install 'esp8266' from Boards Manager.
- Pick NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E).
03First HTTP request
Use the ESP8266HTTPClient library to GET a URL and print the body — a 20-line sketch is all you need.
04ESP8266 vs ESP32
ESP32 is faster, dual-core, has Bluetooth and more RAM. Pick ESP8266 only when cost and size matter more than features.
