This article discusses the main issues of building protection against direct lightning strikes. Stated physical nature of electro-geometric model (EGM) which is used to determine the protection zone of air terminal. Article focuses on the analysis of three major, standard established, protection methods: protective angle method, mesh method and rolling sphere method. Also provides overview of some non-standard methods (early streamer emission (ESE) air terminals, collection surface method, collection volume method and elliptic model), which find application in some foreign countries. Article contains 17 images and references to 15 information sources.