Installing a Fedora 16 system using the "minimal" target will result in a system without functional networking.  The "minimal" install target does not install NetworkManager, while at the same time it does not enable the "network" init script:

# chkconfig --list | grep network
network         0:off   1:off   2:off    3:off    4:off    5:on    6:off

This results in a system that boots with no active networking, which is quite surprising when one has just completed a network install.

Either installing NetworkManager or enabling the "network" script will solve the problem.