why is my ethernet cable magnetic?

[jbeale]

Was playing around with a magnet today and to my surprise, I can pick up one of my ethernet patch cables with the magnet. Copper, aluminum, and plastic don't do that, so it must contain steel wire? Is this common? None of my other cables do this.

The magnetic cable is light grey or tan in color and has no markings at all. I'm assuming this qualifies as a "cheap junk" part?

[Heater]

Yeah. Cheap crap. Probably normal now a days.

Heck, you can pick up "copper" coins with a magnet now.

[jbeale]

Yes, although I thought the good cables were solid copper, and the cheap stuff would be copper-clad aluminum. Steel wire had not occurred to me.

[Ronaldlees]

Yes, it's fairly common, where there's a need for strength. It's not just the cheap stuff. A lot of the smaller diameter coaxial cables use steel/copper combos.

[jamesh]

Yeah. Cheap crap. Probably normal now a days.

Heck, you can pick up "copper" coins with a magnet now.

Many UK coins are nickel/copper plated steel or similar nowadays. It's cheaper to make and more robust.

[S0litaire]

It also makes for easy cabling...
Buy a strip of that flexible sticky backed magnetic tape and you never need to bang cable clips into the wall ever again!! lol
(joke!)

[shaw67]

gone are the days of long lasting equipment!!!!

[aTao]

There isnt a whole lot of need for copper in the middle of the conductor since, at Cat5 and up, all the signal is in the outer layer of the core. So, a steel centre makes the cable stronger, easier to install, cheaper and STILL do the job. Whats not to like?

[Heater]

Ah yes, the skin effect. Sounds good to me.

[jbeale]

Except if you are using PoE over a longish run to also power a device...

[PiGraham]

I didn't know that. I have found a particularly thin Ethernet cable and a USB cable that are magnetic. I cut away some of the PVC sleeve on the Ethernet cable to check the twisted pairs inside and they are the magnetic bit.