[Javascript] List of browser windows?

[Matthew Palmer]

I'm working on a webapp that has a multitude of windows - status boxes and
other such things.  What I need to be able to do is tell the status window
to refresh it's contents (go back to the server and ask again) when
something gets changed in this other window.

The "neatest" way of doing this would be if there was a way to get a list of
all the browser windows.  Then I could trundle through that list of windows
and work out which one I needed to poke.

Being able to access other windows sounds like a security hold to me,
though, so maybe it isn't possible.  I'd love to be found wrong on that,
though...

The only way I've come up with so far is to construct the list of windows
myself, and pass it around to all other windows, which then notify everyone
else in their current list when a new window is created - but it's slow,
buggy, and generally makes me feel like I've just drunk lukewarm engine oil. 
Assuming that the automatic window list isn't available, any other options?

- Matt