The invention provides a portable and autonomous assistance device to
derive information on faults in a private telecommunication installation
comprising particularly equipment units to assist the client owning the
installation in maintaining the latter. A maintenance session is selected
in a maintenance server of the service provider managing the installation
as a function of information transmitted by the assistance device so as
to provide instructions in the device. The address of the server and an
identifier of the equipment unit are rapidly read by means of a bar code
reader which can also read bar codes in a user manual. The assistance
device also serves to configure a terminal (TE) by means of a
configuration session opened in a server (SFT) of the terminal
manufacturer.