I am trying to get the wireless networking working on Fedora installed into my HP dv9000 laptop when I ran into this error. The problem was caused because the system was trying to set the wireless mode to be AUTO instead of MANAGED. Update: I ran the iwlist command and found out the information that I needed to get the wireless connection working. 
[root@localhost network-scripts]# /sbin/iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:16:B6:1F:2B:CC
                    ESSID:"ECLECTIC_CONSULTING"
                    Mode: Master
                    Channel: 6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=100/100  Signal level=-33 dBm  Noise level=-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=000000007b651a75
The important bits are bolded - the ESSID, Mode, and Channel. Use the system-config-network command to set the properties of the wlan0 connection. I'm publishing this blog from my laptop via a wireless connection so I know my system is now working correctly.