user13542: I was wondering if its possible to program the esp8266 to receive firmware updates without the use of an IDE to program.
Use Case: 
This device should be setup to the WiFi network scan an IP for a firmware update and update itself if needed.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you

user23645: This: https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-MQTT-OTA-Arduino is a Arduino based firmware with support for OTA. It's written for Sonoff, but that is just a ESP8266 with a relay attached, you can easily adapt it to any ESP8266.
It uses a 'hard coded' address of a web server where it downloads the firmware, and updates are triggered by MQTT messages, but all of that should not be too hard to change to something else.

13542: <p>I was wondering if its possible to program the esp8266 to receive firmware updates without the use of an IDE to program.</p>

<p>Use Case: 
This device should be setup to the WiFi network scan an IP for a firmware update and update itself if needed.</p>

<p>Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you</p>
 23645: <p>This: <a href="https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-MQTT-OTA-Arduino" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-MQTT-OTA-Arduino</a> is a Arduino based firmware with support for OTA. It's written for Sonoff, but that is just a ESP8266 with a relay attached, you can easily adapt it to any ESP8266.</p>

<p>It uses a 'hard coded' address of a web server where it downloads the firmware, and updates are triggered by MQTT messages, but all of that should not be too hard to change to something else.</p>
