It's possible Browser Cache without having mod_expires installed?

By now, after lots of research and attempts, I’m very satisfied.

I don’t have mod_expires.c installed at my server so every functionality related to it isn’t possible for me. “Browser Cache” W3TC option relays on lots of mod_expires, so I deactivated it. I kept “Page Cache” only.

After that, I rewrited my .htaccess implementing a cache system with mod_headers.c only.. less effective I think, but that’s what I can do.

I placed some compressing code using mod_deflate.c to.

As measured, 25-30% performance increase.
I wish I could have mod_expires.c.
Still opened for new opinions.

By the way, I tested CDN with Amazon CloudFront, works fine. I had problems but after I selected “HTTP only” everything went right.

Resulting .htaccess is as follows:

# BEGIN Compress text files
<ifModule mod_deflate.c>
	<filesMatch "\.(css|js|x?html?|php)$">
		SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
	</filesMatch>
</ifModule>
# END Compress text files

# BEGIN Cache-Control Headers
<ifModule mod_headers.c>
	# 1 YEAR
	<FilesMatch "\.(flv|ico|pdf|avi|mov|ppt|doc|mp3|wmv|wav)$">
		Header set Cache-Control "max-age=29030400, public"
	</FilesMatch>
	# 8 DAYS
	<FilesMatch "\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|swf)$">
		Header set Cache-Control "max-age=691200, public"
	</FilesMatch>
	# 8 DAYS
	<FilesMatch "\.(txt|xml|js|css)$">
		Header set Cache-Control "max-age=691200, private"
	</FilesMatch>
	# NEVER CACHE
	<FilesMatch "\.(html|htm|php|cgi|pl)$">
		Header set Cache-Control "max-age=0, private, no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate"
	</FilesMatch>
</ifModule>
# END Cache-Control Headers

# BEGIN Turn ETags Off
<ifModule mod_headers.c>
	Header unset ETag
</ifModule>
FileETag None
# END Turn ETags Off

# BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} w3tc_preview [NC]
    RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_PREVIEW:_preview]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST
    RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} =""
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \/$
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !(comment_author|wp\-postpass|w3tc_logged_out|wordpress_logged_in|wptouch_switch_toggle) [NC]
    RewriteCond "%{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wordpress/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_PREVIEW}.html" -f
    RewriteRule .* "/wordpress/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_PREVIEW}.html" [L]
</IfModule>
# END W3TC Page Cache core

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
	RewriteEngine On
	RewriteBase /
	RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
	RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress