You can still use the fresnel node - I use it all the time for water and glass. You just need to be aware of its limitations. Bagginsbill pointed out one major one in his first post in this thread - refractive materials cast a shadow.

In some cases you need to make the refractive part a separate prop in its own right, in which case you can turn off "casts shadows" in the properties tab. The test render attached wouldn't have been possible using my breaking window prop in its supplied form, since the glass is part of the same prop as the window frame and wall. If I left "casts shadows" on, the glass also cast a shadow and there was no sunlight on the floor. If I turned it off, then of course the sunlight shone through the walls too. Neither situation is terribly realistic. :)

I had to separate the window into 'glass only' and 'glass free' props. The former has fresnel refraction but no shadows, the latter, the opposite. Unfortunately the 3D motion blur I used tends to obscure the refraction effect - but the shards of glass still catch the light convincingly, I think.