Communication is the heart of the day to day activity in the current world. Since the world has practiced with electronic devices for carrying out all the daily activities, electronic and wireless communication along with internet plays a major role in the success of providing a sophisticated life. Moreover, the internet users are also gradually increasing in the recent two decades for making their life easy through fast communication. In such a scenario, the numbers of intruders are increasing in the internet dramatically. In this paper, we provide a survey on the use of machine learning algorithms for developing intelligent intrusion detection systems which are most useful for providing secure communication in wireless networks. Moreover, we compare all the important intelligent intrusion detection systems based on their performance and also suggest some new ideas for improving the decision accuracy of current intelligent intrusion detection systems. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.