Need help finding binary to do ESP8266 “websocket” for LaserGRBL

So I have a 3018 Pro running GRBL 1.1, the USB connection is fine but I need to put this in the garage so need WiFi working. I was planning on using LaserGRBL and adding the usual ESP8266 in "websocket" configuration (it can supposedly do that or I guess telnet with alternate hardware). I went to LaserGRBL's webpage and he gives a file "websocket.ino" which I guess is some kind of Arduino development file, I don't do Arduino so don't know. So I went looking around on GitHub and there's an entity Nodemcu that has entire libraries of ESP8266 code, in fact they have it set up so you can select from up to 70 different modules, plus they have a nice binary file flash loader. The problem is I don't really know which modules GRBL 1.1 actually needs to have on the ESP8266 in order to make websocket functionality work. I tried "guessing" but I wasn't getting anywhere (I can activate the hardware and see a signal from it but I can't communicate with it). Nodemcu hasn't responded to my email yet, ESP8266.com hasn't either and LaserGRBL simply REFUSES to provide support in any form! Can you point me in a direction where I can make progress? I don't know the architecture of GRBL, LaserGRBL OR websocket, and for it to be up to me to "reverse engineer" ALL of this source code JUST to complete the codebase for something that has already been thoroughly integrated and debugged just doesn't seem reasonable or logical! Thank you in advance.