Lightning problems on telephone system

I’m the technical support person for a small rural campground, and my wife and I live here. We have an electronic telephone system with voice mail, forwarding, etc. on a dozen extensions, both digital and analog, scattered around 300 acres and up to half a mile away from the main office. My wife and I came home from a movie last night and all of the electronic telephones were dead after (apparently) a lightning storm. BUT the two DSL modems, routers, and computer systems were OK (I’m using it right now), AND all the mechanical, analog phones worked OK. Short term solution is to replace the electronic telephones. But what’s the best long term solution? This is not the first time something like this has happened. Options include:
1. install lightning arresters on all extensions and incoming telephone land lines - but I’ve heard that these things are not very reliable and hard to test,
2. Try to migrate the telephone system to some internet based system, but I don’t know how to do that, and this makes the telephone system dependant on the incoming DSL line, which also is not all that reliable,
3. Try to migrate the telephone system to cell phones, but cell phone service is also not very reliable and I don’t know how you have a cell phone system with a dozen extensions.
Does anybody have any advice, recommendations, or suggestions? Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

The problem with analog phones is that they do not provide much access to the electronic features (intercom, forwarding, answering machine, night message, etc. etc.), which are often handy in routine daily operations.

 

I would identify what equipment (is it actually a hardware problem or could it be software or maybe firmware) became faulty. They must run back to a centralised "board ", is that the problem or have all the handsets failed together? Is there a "reset" system? Electronic systems should have a diagnostics method, can you find and familiarise yourself with it?

Try asking at the website of the telephone manufacturer's website. Obviously you can't afford to replace or rebuild the system every time there is lightning in the area. What were you told when it happened before, did they bother to run diagnostics or just rebuild the system (which might have been easier for them, but costly for you...like when you contact a computer manufacturer's support and their and only recommendation is reformatting)?

I don't have experience with the type of system you are talking about, but that's how I would approach it.

Matt

 

There's absolutely nothing you can do in the event of a direct lightning strike. The voltage potential is just too great and can jump around, over or through anything, if it has a mind to. That is why lightning arrestors are often considered not that reliable. But they are still better than nothing. And yes, they do need to be tested regularly, but then so should the grounding of every home - but that rarely happens.

Every remote location must have a proper ground to Earth. And of course, the central office equipment must be properly grounded, and should also be on a good UPS with AVR.

Have you considered setting up a wireless network across the site? This again would rely on the DSL connection for Internet access, but even if you lose the Internet, the campground's local network would still work for local communications. Depending on the terrain, you may have to set up a few range extenders to cover the extreme areas, but that should not be too difficult. And if one of the remote range extenders takes a direct hit, it will only take out that device, not the whole network.