Are you using this to keep a background connection to your server? If so, I'd highly suggest trying the JavaScript XML-HTTP object, which allows just that, but without the need for a separate page/window, although it would require a little bit of JavaScript knowledge.
A fairly brief tutorial (with no real PHP examples, though) is
here at the w3c.
Otherwise...not sure, it's Firefox that knows the frame is there, and is consistently reloading. Of course I've not tried it directly, but it seems odd that the tab would take the name of the frame, instead of the main page, I guess it just shows anything that hasn't finished loading?
For the status bar, you could use some JavaScript to make it say something standard, like 'welcome to my page' - thereby hiding the loading part...
o.O